Irritable colon and depression

Abstract

Numerous attempts have been made to relate specific emotional conflicts to colonic symptoms in the irritable colon syndrome. Depression has been described as an accompaniment of the illness. This paper investigates the relationship between irritable colon and depression using self-rating symptom scales and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale. Thirty-one subjects were followed for two months in a double-blind study employing a tricyclic antidepressant and an inactive placebo. The study demonstrates the frequency of depression in patients with the syndrome; it shows a clearly positive treatment effect with placebo alone for both depressive symptoms and gastrointestinal complaints, and suggests that tricyclic antidepressant therapy results in moderately greater improvement in symptoms than does treatment with placebo alone.