Table 4.
Comparing Patients with High and Low Scores on 7 Gastrointestinal Symptom Clusters Against Controls Concerning the Degree of Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Suppression Post-dexamethasone Suppression Test
| HPA-axis suppression post-DST | P-valuesa (vs controls) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||
| Hypersuppressors (cortisol < 130 nmol L−1) | Intermediate (cortisol 130–500 nmol L−1) | Hyposuppressors (cortisol > 500 nmol L−1) | ||
| Controls (n = 146, n [%]) | 14 (10) | 118 (180) | 14 (10) | |
| Abdominal painb | ||||
| High (n = 28, n [%]) | 7 (23) | 17 (61) | 4 (14) | 0.036 |
| Low (n = 33, n [%]) | 5 (15) | 23 (70) | 5 (15) | 0.390 |
| Bloatingb | ||||
| High (n = 23, n [%]) | 7 (30) | 14 (61) | 2 (9) | 0.028 |
| Low (n = 38, n [%]) | 5 (13) | 26 (68) | 7 (19) | 0.200 |
| Constipationb | ||||
| High (n= 30, n [%]) | 9 (30) | 18 (60) | 3 (10) | 0.023 |
| Low (n =31, n [%]) | 3 (10) | 22 (71) | 6 (19) | 0.250 |
| Diarrheab | ||||
| High (n = 33, n [%]) | 8 (24) | 20 (61) | 5 (15) | 0.035 |
| Low (n = 28, n [%]) | 4 (14) | 20 (72) | 4 (14) | 0.490 |
| Early Satietyb | ||||
| High (n = 22, n [%]) | 5 (23) | 15 (68) | 2 (9) | 0.220 |
| Low (n = 39, n [%]) | 7 (18) | 25 (64) | 7 (18) | 0.067 |
| Nauseab,c | ||||
| High (n = 23, n [%]) | 6 (26) | 14 (61) | 3 (13) | 0.041 |
| Low (n = 37, n [%]) | 6 (16) | 26 (70) | 5 (14) | 0.320 |
| Refluxb,c | ||||
| High (n = 26, n [%]) | 7 (27) | 17 (65) | 2 (8) | 0.062 |
| Low (n = 34, n [%]) | 5 (15) | 23 (68) | 6 (17) | 0.200 |
All analyses are comparisons concerning the categorized post-DST cortisol distributions between the patient subgroups and the controls.
The patients were divided based on the median scores for each specific symptom cluster within the patient sample. Abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, and early satiety were based on items from gastrointestinal symptom rating scale-irritable bowel syndrome (GSRS-IBS). Nausea and reflux were based on items from part of the GSRS. Sixty-one and 60 patients filled in GSRS-IBS and the part of GSRS respectively. The reason for the uneven and varying number of patients within the high and low groups was due to a varying number of patients sharing the exact same scores concerning the different symptom clusters.
The Nausea cluster includes vomiting and a sucking sensation.
The control consisted of 146 subjects. The lowest 10% (n = 14) and the highest 10% cutoffs (n = 14) of the post-dexamethasone suppression test (DST) cortisol values (< 130 nmol L−1 and > 500 nmol L−1 respectively) within the control sample were defined as hyper- and hyposuppression respectively and the remaining 80% (n = 118) were defined as having an intermediate hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis suppression.
Significance testing performed with Fisher’s exact test.