All Boards >> Irritable Bowel Syndrome Research Library

View all threads Posts     Flat     Threaded

Women With IBS Show Changes In Their Brains
      07/28/10 11:01 AM
HeatherAdministrator

Reged: 12/09/02
Posts: 7799
Loc: Seattle, WA

Study finds structural brain alterations in patients with irritable bowel syndrome

A large academic study has demonstrated structural changes in specific brain regions in female patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a condition that causes pain and discomfort in the abdomen, along with diarrhea, constipation or both. A collaborative effort between UCLA and Canada's McGill University, the study appears in the July issue of the journal Gastroenterology. The findings show that IBS is associated with both decreases and increases in grey matter density in key areas of the brain involved in attention, emotion regulation, pain inhibition and the processing of visceral information.

IBS affects approximately 15 percent of the U.S. population, primarily women. Currently, the condition is considered by the medical field to be a "functional" syndrome of the digestive tract not working properly rather than an "organic" disorder with structural organ changes. Efforts to identify structural or biochemical alterations in the gut have largely been unsuccessful. Even though the pathophysiology is not completely understood, it is generally agreed that IBS represents an alteration in brain-gut interactions. These study findings, however, show actual structural changes to the brain, which places IBS in the category of other pain disorders, such as lower back pain, temporomandibular joint disorder, migraines and hip pain — conditions in which some of the same anatomical brain changes have been observed, as well as other changes.

A recent, smaller study suggested structural brain changes in IBS, but a larger definitive study hadn't been completed until now. "Discovering structural changes in the brain, whether they are primary or secondary to the gastrointestinal symptoms, demonstrates an 'organic' component to IBS and supports the concept of a brain-gut disorder," said study author Dr. Emeran Mayer, professor of medicine, physiology and psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA." Also, the finding removes the idea once and for all that IBS symptoms are not real and are 'only psychological.'The findings will give us more insight into better understanding IBS."

Researchers employed imaging techniques to examine and analyze brain anatomical differences between 55 female IBS patients and 48 female control subjects. Patients had moderate IBS severity, with disease duration from one to 34 years (average 11 years). The average age of the participants was 31. Investigators found both increases and decreases of brain grey matter in specific cortical brain regions. Even after accounting for additional factors such as anxiety and depression, researchers still discovered differences between IBS patients and control subjects in areas of the brain involved in cognitive and evaluative functions, including the prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices, and in the posterior insula, which represents the primary viscerosensory cortex receiving sensory information from the gastrointestinal tract.

"The grey-matter changes in the posterior insula are particularly interesting since they may play a role in central pain amplification for IBS patients," said study author David A. Seminowicz, Ph.D., of the Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain at McGill University. "This particular finding may point to a specific brain difference or abnormality that plays a role in heightening pain signals that reach the brain from the gut." Decreases in grey matter in IBS patients occurred in several regions involved in attentional brain processes, which decide what the body should pay attention to. The thalamus and midbrain also showed reductions, including a region — the periaqueductal grey — that plays a major role in suppressing pain. "Reductions of grey matter in these key areas may demonstrate an inability of the brain to effectively inhibit pain responses," Seminowicz said. The observed decreases in brain grey matter were consistent across IBS patient sub-groups, such as those experiencing more diarrhea-like symptoms than constipation. "We noticed that the structural brain changes varied between patients who characterized their symptoms primarily as pain, rather than non-painful discomfort," said Mayer, director of the UCLA Center for Neurobiology of Stress. "In contrast, the length of time a patient has had IBS was not related to these structural brain changes." Mayer added that the next steps in the research will include exploring whether genes can be identified that are related to these structural brain changes. In addition, there is a need to increase the study sample size to address male-female differences and to determine if these brain changes are a cause or consequence of having IBS.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. Additional authors include M. Catherine Bushnell, Ph.D., of McGill University, and Jennifer B. Labus, Joshua A. Bueller, Kirsten Tillisch and Bruce D. Naliboff, Ph.D., all of UCLA.

Author:
Rachel Champeau

http://www.semel.ucla.edu/news/10/jul/22/study-finds-structural-brain-alterations-patients-irritable-bowel-syndrome


--------------------
Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!

Print     Remind Me     Notify Moderator    

Entire thread
* Brain-Gut
HeatherAdministrator
07/14/03 01:59 PM
* There’s a ‘second brain’ in your gut — and it’s smarter than you think
HeatherAdministrator
07/07/17 04:46 PM
* Gut bacteria may play a role in regulating myelination in the brain's prefrontal cortex
HeatherAdministrator
10/26/15 03:04 PM
* Perceived stress higher among patients with IBS
HeatherAdministrator
09/08/15 03:08 PM
* How the Gut's Second Brain Influences Mood and Well-Being
HeatherAdministrator
07/15/14 03:08 PM
* Does bacteria connect the brain and the gut?
HeatherAdministrator
09/27/13 11:44 AM
* Women With IBS Show Changes In Their Brains
HeatherAdministrator
07/28/10 11:01 AM
* Brain-gut axis dysfunction in IBS
HeatherAdministrator
03/16/10 11:27 AM
* Olfactory and gustatory function in irritable bowel syndrome
HeatherAdministrator
03/16/10 11:24 AM
* Mind/Body psychological treatments for irritable bowel syndrome
HeatherAdministrator
03/18/09 05:47 PM
* Women With IBS Can't Switch Off Pain Response
HeatherAdministrator
01/18/08 12:39 PM
* Daily stress and gastrointestinal symptoms in women with irritable bowel syndrome
HeatherAdministrator
12/06/07 04:41 PM
* Colonic Hypersensitivity in IBS - Brain or Gut?
HeatherAdministrator
09/13/07 12:04 PM
* Stress, the Brain-Gut Axis, and IBS
HeatherAdministrator
07/17/07 11:34 AM
* The Effectiveness of Hypnotherapy in the Management of Irritable Bowel Syndrome
HeatherAdministrator
10/26/06 10:16 AM
* An international study of irritable bowel syndrome: Family relationships and mind-body attributions
HeatherAdministrator
06/04/06 12:28 PM
* A Neurobiology of Sensitivity?
HeatherAdministrator
06/04/06 12:16 PM
* Pathophysiology of IBS and Serotonin Signaling
HeatherAdministrator
07/05/05 03:22 PM
* Serotonin receptors and transporters — roles in normal and abnormal gastrointestinal motility
HeatherAdministrator
11/08/04 04:38 PM
* Alterations of sensori-motor functions of the digestive tract in the pathophysiology of IBS
HeatherAdministrator
09/12/04 03:44 PM
* Visceral Sensitivity Index: Development and Validation of a GI Symptom-Specific Anxiety Scale
HeatherAdministrator
07/24/04 01:54 PM
* Brain activity during distention of the descending colon in humans
HeatherAdministrator
07/11/04 02:07 PM
* Irritable bowel syndrome: a model of the brain-gut interactions
HeatherAdministrator
05/25/04 12:28 PM
* The human enteric nervous system
HeatherAdministrator
05/11/04 07:10 PM
* Images Show a Snub Really Is Like Kick in the Gut
HeatherAdministrator
10/20/03 03:43 PM
* The Brain-Gut Connection
HeatherAdministrator
09/01/03 11:43 AM
* The Neurobiology of Stress and Emotions, and IBS
HeatherAdministrator
07/23/03 10:35 AM
* Gut Feelings: The Surprising Link Between Mood and Digestion
HeatherAdministrator
07/23/03 10:31 AM
* Sleep and gastric function in irritable bowel syndrome: derailing the brain-gut axis
HeatherAdministrator
07/18/03 12:42 PM
* The autonomic nervous system in functional bowel disorders.
HeatherAdministrator
07/18/03 12:40 PM
* Regional cerebral activation in irritable bowel syndrome
HeatherAdministrator
07/18/03 12:36 PM
* Intestinal reactivity to words with emotional content and brain information processing in IBS
HeatherAdministrator
07/18/03 12:35 PM
* Perceptual hyperreactivity to auditory stimuli in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.
HeatherAdministrator
07/18/03 12:33 PM
* The gut as a neurological organ.
HeatherAdministrator
07/18/03 12:28 PM
* Brain research in functional gastrointestinal disorders.
HeatherAdministrator
07/18/03 12:24 PM
* The gut has a mind of its own
HeatherAdministrator
07/14/03 04:07 PM

Extra information
0 registered and 9 anonymous users are browsing this forum.

Moderator:  Heather 



Permissions
      You cannot post until you login
      You cannot reply until you login
      HTML is enabled
      UBBCode is enabled

Thread views: 226923

Jump to

| Privacy statement Help for IBS Home

*
UBB.threads™ 6.2


HelpForIBS.com BBB Business Review