Table 2.
Cognitive performance in irritable bowel syndrome
| Cognitive domain | Sample size: IBS/Control/Other | IBS subtype | Sex Male:Female | Mean age IBS/Control/Other | Key finding | Ref. |
| Visuospatial memory | 39/40 | IBS-D = 7; IBS-C = 4; IBS-A = 28 | 6:33 (IBS) | 28/28 | Impaired performance which correlated with salivary cortisol levels | [140] |
| 11:29 (Control) | ||||||
| 40/41 | N.S. | 13:27 (IBS) | 37/43 | No group differences | [245] | |
| 16:25 (Control) | ||||||
| Working memory | 39/40 | IBS-D = 7; IBS-C = 4; IBS-A = 28 | 6:33 (IBS) | 28/28 | No group differences | [140] |
| 11:29 (Control) | ||||||
| 40/41 | N.S. | 13:27 (IBS) | 37/43 | No group differences | [245] | |
| 16:25 (Control) | ||||||
| Cognitive flexibility | 30/30 | IBS-D = 13; IBS-C = 13; IBS-A = 4 | 15:15 (IBS) | 21/21 | Impaired cognitive flexibility and altered frontal brain activity in IBS | [141] |
| 15:15 (Control) | ||||||
| 39/40 | IBS-D = 7; IBS-C = 4; IBS-A = 28 | 6:33 (IBS) | 28/28 | No group differences | [140] | |
| 11:29 (Control) | ||||||
| 40/41 | N.S. | 13:27 (IBS) | 37/43 | No group differences | [245] | |
| 16:25 (Control) | ||||||
| Selective attention | 39/40 | IBS-D = 7; IBS-C = 4; IBS-A = 28 | 6:33 (IBS) | 28/28 | No group differences | [140] |
| 11:29 (Control) | ||||||
| 40/41 | N.S. | 13:27 (IBS) | 37/43 | No group differences | [245] | |
| 16:25 (Control) | ||||||
| 27/27 | N.S. | 3:24 (IBS) | 45/42 | No group differences | [246] | |
| 3:24 (Control) | ||||||
| Reaction time | 40/41 | N.S. | 13:27 (IBS) | 37/43 | No group differences | [245] |
| 16:25 (Control) | ||||||
| Affective attention | 15/15 | IBS-D = 6; IBS-C = 3; IBS-A = 3; Other = 3 | 4:11 (IBS) | 30/30 | Enhanced attention to GI symptom-related words | [247] |
| 5:10 (IBS) | ||||||
| 20 (Rome II Criteria)/33 | N.S. | 2:18 (IBS) | 31/27 | Enhanced attention to pain-related words | [248] | |
| 12:21 (Control) | ||||||
| 36 (Rome II Criteria)/40 (mixed organic GI disease) | N.S. | 12:24 (IBS) | 35/36 | Enhanced recognition of GI-related words | [249] | |
| 16:24 (mixed organic GI disease) | ||||||
| Affective memory | 30 (Manning criteria)/30/28 (depressed patients)/28 (organic GI disease) | N.S. | N.S. | 36/35/38/27 (median age) | Enhanced recall of negative words compared to control and organic GI disease - no difference in comparison to depression group | [250] |
GI: Gastrointestinal; IBS (D/C/A): Irritable bowel syndrome (diarrhoea/constipation/alternating); N.S.; Not specified.