Personality traits and emotional patterns in irritable bowel syndrome

Table 3 Emotional patterns and irritable bowel syndrome

-Negative emotions, which are probably more entangled with neurobiological substrates, seem to have a key role in the brain-gut axis dysfunction which characterizes irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

-Anger, anxiety, and depression have been consistently associated to visceral and pain hypersensitivity. In the presence of negative emotions, visceral sensations tend to be more noticeable and labeled as painful.

-Emotional arousal can augment colonic motility and diarrhoea; laboratory studies have provided evidence that anger-provoking conditions significantly increased colon motility in IBS patients, whereas anger suppression was associated with prolonged gastric emptying and delayed gut transit.

-A role for negative emotions in low-grade inflammation and altered immune activity in IBS has garnered support from studies demonstrating alterations on several inflammatory and immune parameters resulting in an imbalance of the proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines.