2350 – Pain engagement and disengagement, self-reported health and illness behaviour in irritable bowel syndrome

Abstract

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is characterised by persistent symptoms in the absence of structural abnormality. To discover if people with IBS exhibit atypical patterns of attention to symbolic pain stimuli. To investigate whether IBS is linked to enhanced engagement with pain words and slower disengagement. Exogenous cueing was carried out with 20 IBS and 33 healthy participants. Participants responded to a dot following on the same or other side of the screen, allowing measurement of engagement and disengagement. ANCOVAs were carried out. The IBS group engaged more with Pain and Social Threat words, and had greater difficulty in disengaging from Pain but not from Social Threat (see Figures 1 and 2). Difficulty in disengaging from Pain was linked to greater symptom severity. Mean pain threat indices for engagement and disengagement for IBS and control groups Mean social threat indices for engagement and disengagement for IBS and control groups The IBS group engaged more with pain and found it more difficult to disengage, suggesting a vicious circle maintenance model of IBS.