Women with irritable bowel syndrome who have experienced sexual and/or physical abuse may have a heightened brain response to pain that makes them more sensitive to abdominal discomfort, research shows.

UCLA and University of North Carolina researchers have found that women with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) who have experienced sexual and/or physical abuse may have a heightened brain response to pain that makes them more sensitive to abdominal discomfort. IBS is a condition that affects ten to 15 per cent of the population and causes gastrointestinal discomfort along with diarrhea, constipation or both.

Researchers used brain imaging to show that patients with IBS who also had a background of abuse were not as able to turn off a pain modulation mechanism in the brain as effectively as were IBS patients who had not suffered abuse.

According to previous studies, more than 50 per cent of patients with IBS have been physically or sexually abused at some time in their lives. The new finding may help explain why those in this subset of IBS patients experience greater pain and poorer health outcomes than others with the disorder. Such insight provides a greater understanding of how the disorder develops and may offer new pathways for treatment. Brain imaging studies were performed at the UCLA Brain Mapping Center.

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