Relationship between overlapping symptoms and psycho-mental factors in patients with functional dyspepsia

Objective To study the relationship between overlapping symptoms (OS) and psycho- mental factors in patients with functional dyspepsia (FD) in order to understand the possible mechanisms of OS.Methods One hundred and three FD patients diagnosed by Rome Ⅲ criteria were divided into with or without OS groups by Rome Modular Questionnaire.The emotional status,sleep status,anxiety and depression status were evaluated by Zung Anxiety and Depression Scale and quality of life was eveluated by SF-36 questionnaire.The results were compared between the two groups.Results The proportion of the patients with and without OS accounted for 62.5% and 37.5%,respectively.The patients with OS had a worse emotional status ("bad%" and "very bad%" being 39.1% and 20.2% vs.15.4% and 12.8%,P=0.018) and a worse sleep status (45.3% and 11.0% vs.19.1% and 7.7%,p=0.018)than those without OS.The proportion of the patients with anxiety (49 % ) and depression (68 % ) status in OS group was significantly higher than that in without OS group (19% and 44%,respectively,P＜0.05). The quality of life of the patients with OS was worse in the dimensions of psychological health (47.9), vitality (47.1) and mental component score (32.8)than those in without OS group (57.8,57.0,37.0, respectively,P＜0.05).Conclusions The psycho-mental factors are associated with overlapping symptoms in patients with FD,which suggests that abnormal psycho-mental factors may be involved in the mechanisms underlying overlapping gastrointestinal symptoms in FD. Key words: Dyspepsia;  Diagnosis;  Mental health