Quality of life and psychometric evaluation of patients diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome: an observational cohort study.

BACKGROUND Very few data are available for evaluating health-related quality of life among people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and even fewer data are available in relation to anxiety and depression status among these patients. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the quality of life, anxiety and depression status of patients with IBS. DESIGN AND SETTING Observational cohort study conducted in a tertiary-care university hospital. METHODS Patients who had recently been diagnosed with IBS and who had been followed up for IBS-specific treatment for at least three months were included. A quality of life (QoL) survey, the Beck Anxiety Index (BAI) and the Hamilton Depression Index (HAM-D) were applied to the patients. RESULTS In total, 274 patients with IBS were included in the study cohort. These patients presented very high baseline scores for anxiety and depression, and very poor QoL results. CONCLUSION Our study showed that IBS had a very high impact on these patients, regarding their anxiety and depression levels, alongside very poor results relating to quality of life.