title: Association of participation in a mindfulness programme with bowel symptoms, gastrointestinal symptom-specific anxiety and quality of life.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Stress perception and GI-specific anxiety play key roles in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a widely available stress reduction course, which has not been evaluated for IBS.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether participation in MBSR is associated with improvement in bowel symptoms, GI-specific anxiety, and IBS-Quality of Life.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a prospective study of 93 participants in MBSR. We applied measures of Rome III IBS status, bowel symptoms (IBS-Severity Scoring System, IBS-SSS), IBS-Quality of Life (IBS-QOL), GI-specific anxiety (Visceral Sensitivity Index, VSI), mindfulness (Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-FFMQ), and functional status (SF-8) at baseline and 2 and 6 months after enrolment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At 2 months, participation in MBSR was associated with small nonsignificant changes in IBS-SSS, IBS-QOL and VSI: d = -0.25, d = 0.08, d = -0.16, respectively. At 6 months, there was no significant change in IBS-SSS (d = -0.36); whereas for IBS-QOL and VSI there were significant improvements (IBS-QOL: d = 0.33, P = 0.044; VSI: d = -0.40, P = 0.014). For patients meeting Rome III IBS criteria (n = 43), changes in IBS-SSS, IBS-QOL and VSI were not statistically significant, but there was a significant correlation between the change in VSI and the change in FFMQ across the three time periods (r = 0.33).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Participation in MBSR is associated with improvement IBS-related quality of life and GI-specific anxiety. Randomised controlled trials are warranted to further assess the role of MBSR for IBS symptomatology.
authors.affiliation: VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, WA 98108, USA. David.kearney@va.gov
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Kearney
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: McDermott
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.forename: T L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Simpson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D043183:Irritable Bowel Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D026441:Mind-Body Therapies / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014728:Veterans