A Study of Psychological Factors Associated with Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders and Use of Health Care

Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and childhood trauma in functional gastrointestinal disorder (FGID) patients who visited the brain-gut axis clinic. Methods: The study participants included 99 individuals who were diagnosed with FGID by gastroenterologists, 88 individuals who had no FGID but showed symptoms of FGID based on the Rome criteria, and 79 individuals who did not show any symptoms or were diagnosed with FGID. Symptoms of depression, anxiety, and childhood trauma were evaluated by the Korean version of Beck-depression inventory-II (K-BDI-II), Korean version of Beck anxiety inventory (K-BAI), and Korean version of childhood trauma questionnaire (K-CTQ), respectively. Results: The BDI score, BAI score, and CTQ score were significantly different between the groups. The group also had higher odds for developing anxiety as compared to the control group (odds ratio [OR] = 10.215, 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 2.49-41.76). Additionally, the FGID group had higher odds for developing symptoms of depression (OR = 5.554, 95% CI: 2.06-14.97) and experiencing physical violence (OR = 3.128, 95% CI: 1.53 -6.38) than the non-FGID group. Conclusion: This study showed that FGID patients were more likely to have symptoms of depression, severe anxiety, and childhood trauma, which were the risk factors of FGID.