A297 FREQUENT ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EVENTS IN PATIENTS WITH IBS AND ORGANIC GASTROINTESTINAL DISORDERS

Stressful events in childhood have been associated with the development of functional bowel disorders in adulthood, especially irritable bowel syndrome. However, it not known whether early life adverse events affect patients with common organic disorders, including celiac disease and IBD. To evaluate the association between early life adverse events and gastrointestinal and extra-intestinal symptoms in patients with functional and organic gastrointestinal (GI) disorders compared with healthy controls. We included adult patients with a diagnosis of IBS (Rome III criteria), organic GI disorders (celiac disease and IBD) and healthy volunteers (HV). Patients and controls were interviewed by a psychologist and early life adverse events assessed during the semi-structured interview using a modified version of the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) questionnaire. We quantified number of early life events and the presence of gastrointestinal and extraintestinal symptoms in each group. Data are presented as median (IQR) and n (%). We enrolled thirty subjects (16 IBS patients, 8 with organic GI disorders and 6 healthy controls). Patients with IBS had significantly increased number of early life events compared with healthy controls (12 (9–15) vs 3 (1–6); p=0.003). The number of overall early life events in IBS patients was comparable to those with a diagnosis of organic GI disorders. Compared to HV, both patients with IBS and organic GI disorders had significantly increased number of family members with alcohol or drugs abuse during childhood (IBS vs HV p=0.0028; chronic GI disorders vs HV p=0.03) and neglected parents (IBS vs HV p=0.01; chronic GI disorders vs HV p=0.004). Parental conflicts or divorce (p=0.004) and motor vehicle accidents (p=0.049) were more common in IBS patients compared to HV. The number of overall early life adverse events were strongly correlated with number of gastrointestinal (r= 0.91; p=0.01) and extra-intestinal (r=0.87; p=0.02) symptoms, but not with symptoms severity. Our preliminary results show that adverse early life events are frequent in patients with functional and organic gastrointestinal conditions, which may contribute to symptoms in adulthood. The association between number of childhood adverse events and the presence of gastrointestinal and extraintestinal symptoms highlight the need for better psychosocial assessment in gastroenterology clinical practice to improve the management of these patients. None