Cognitive Functioning of Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Functional Dyspepsia

The cognitive sphere (including, among others, memory and attention) plays an extremely important role in an individual’s life. Problems in this sphere of functioning may be concomitant with other somatic disorders, along with gastrointestinal diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome or functional dyspepsia. The goal of the current study was to assess the cognitive functioning of patients suffering from the diseases and make a comparison between the sexes. The research was carried out on a group of 40 subjects. The experimental group contained 10 men and 10 women with a clinical diagnosis of functional dyspepsia or irritable bowel syndrome, and the control group contained 10 men and 10 women who were not suffering from any chronic ailments. The Word List Recognition Test – I and II and the Logical Memory Test from the Wechsler Memory Scale ® (Third Edition, WMS-III) as well as a socio-demographic questionnaire were used. The study revealed no statistically significant differences in terms of auditory memory and the number of remembered words after a 30-mintute delay between men and women with a diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome or functional dyspepsia. Healthy subjects performed better at recalling correctly remembered narrative units. No differences were found in terms of auditory memory and the number of remembered words after a 30-minute delay between men and women diagnosed with IBS and functional dyspepsia. Healthy subjects performed better at recalling correctly remembered narrative units.