الملخص

Background: Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is the most common disorder seen in gastroenterology practice.  It is also a large component of primary care practices. Aim: To determine the association between anxiety and depression and Irritable bowel syndrome. Methods: A case – control study design was adopted to achieve the aim of the present study. This study was conducted in Mosul city and sample was taken from the inward and outward patient department of Al-Zahrawi, Ibn-Seena teaching hospitals and Al-Salaam general hospital. The actual period of data collection has been extended between (20th of December 2006 – 31st of July 2007). A total of 150 cases diagnosed to have IBS by Rome II criteria. Another 150 control group was diagnosed as Rome II negative of apparently healthy individuals which were relatives of patients other than IBS matched according to age (+ 5 years) and sex with cases. A specially designed questionnaire form has been used to help in diagnosing IBS cases according to Rome II criteria. To assess anxiety in cases and controls, ICD- 10 checklist was used and its variables have been planned to be assessed as risk factors and For the diagnosis of depression the international diagnostic checklist for ICD – 10 ( IDCL) has been used.     A questionnaire form filling is through direct interviewing with cases and controls. Chi – square test for contingency tables was used to test for the presence or absence of statistical association or differences between cases and controls, Z – test for the differences between two proportions was used. During statistical analysis P – value of Results: present study shows that the majority of cases (93.3%) were below 55 years. Female to male ratio among cases was 1.9:1. The majority of cases had a mild symptom. Anxiety was found to be a significant risk factor in the development of IBS, this study showed that 64.8% were females with anxiety in comparison to 35.2% males and this study showed that those with depression had a very highly significant risk to develop IBS (OR=4.50) and those with both anxiety and depression have 5 times risk to develop IBS in    comparison to those with   anxiety or depression or none (OR=5.21, P<0.001). Conclusion: In this study, IBS patients appeared to have a significant association with anxiety, depression and these factors maybe played a causative role in the development of IBS.