Zeitschrift für Trauma und Behandlung

Stress, Memory, Eating Behavior and Gastrointestinal Disorder

Abstract

Seamy Grace* and Drake D. Marison

Intestinal function and dysfunction is a mysterious response linked to emotion, embarrassment, and shame. Perception of GI symptoms was assumed to be of different cause in every population. For example, a group of people considered it as hallucinations, whereas another group of people with lower socioeconomic status did not recognize GI clinical features as symptoms. However, modern studies suggest that diet, depression, stress, or anxiety can mutually trigger GI symptoms justified by the physiological, behavioral and psychosocial investigation of functional GI disorder (FGID). Other studies using emotion as stress on healthy subjects and subjects with IBS patients suggest that mood correlates with intestinal motility. For example, the increase and decrease in the intestinal motility were found to be associated with states of aggression and feeling of helplessness respectively. These studies, however, were limited by rudimentary measuring methods and unidirectional analysis approach.