title: Synesthesia, pseudo-synesthesia, and irritable bowel syndrome.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Synesthesia is a sensory disorder where the stimulation of one sensory modality can lead to a reaction in another which would not usually be expected to respond; for instance, someone might see a color on hearing a word such as a day of the week. Disordered perception of sensory information also appears to contribute to the pathophysiology of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The purpose of this exploratory study was to ascertain whether these two conditions might be linked in any way.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two hundred consecutive IBS outpatients were screened for synesthesia and compared with 200 matched healthy volunteers (controls). Positive responders were tested for two types of synesthesia (grapheme-color and music-color/shape) using a questionnaire which was repeated after 3 months to test for reproducibility.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 200 IBS outpatients screened, 26 (13%) patients and six (3%) controls claimed to be synesthetic (P < 0.001). Reproducibility was more variable in IBS patients than controls but despite this variability, 15 (7.5%) patients compared with 5 (2.5%) controls had greater than 75% consistency (P = 0.036), and 19 (9.5%) patients and 6 (3%) controls had greater than 50% consistency (P = 0.012). A reproducibility of less than 50% was observed in seven (3.5%) patients and no controls (0%) (P = 0.015), and these individuals were classified as having pseudo-synesthesia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  IBS patients clearly differ from controls in terms of claiming to have synesthetic experiences. These results justify additional studies on the relationship between IBS and synesthesia to further understand the neural mechanisms underpinning these two conditions and to establish whether they may be linked.
authors.affiliation: Department of Translational Medicine, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. Helen.carruthers@uhsm.nhs.uk
authors.forename: Helen R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Carruthers
authors.forename: Vivien
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tarrier
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Whorwell
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015984:Causality; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D043183:Irritable Bowel Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009146:Music; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012678:Sensation Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D017678:Sex Distribution; D055815:Young Adult