[Psychosomatic aspects of irritable bowel syndrome. Specificity of clinical symptoms, psychopathological features and motor activity of the rectosigmoid].

The clinical symptoms of patients with the irritable bowel syndrome (ICS) frequently do not differ according to present findings from those of patients with lactose malabsorption. To test this observation further in a gastroenterological out-patient clinic, the authors compared the clinical symptoms, psychological features and motor activity in the rectosigmoid in 20 patients with ICS and 21 with lactose malabsorption. It was found that the intestinal symptoms, intestinal motor activity and psychopathology of patients with ICS was nonspecific and occurred equally frequently as those in the malabsorption patients. This casts doubt on the view that psychological factors play a role in the pathogenesis of ICS.