Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Apr 30;25(1):321.
doi: 10.1186/s12876-025-03919-7.

The interaction effect between childhood trauma and negative events during adulthood on development and severity of irritable bowel syndrome

Zhiyu Dong #  1   2 , Xiaomei Wang #  3 , Liqian Xuan  4 , Junwen Wang  2 , Tingting Zhan  2 , Ying Chen  2 , Shuchang Xu  5 , Danian Ji  6
Affiliations

The interaction effect between childhood trauma and negative events during adulthood on development and severity of irritable bowel syndrome

Zhiyu Dong et al. BMC Gastroenterol. .

Abstract

Background: Childhood trauma and negative events during adulthood were associated with the symptom severity of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). However, the interaction effect of these negative events on IBS remains poorly understood.

Methods: 70 healthy individuals who completed Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and Life Event Scale (LES) and 88 IBS patients, diagnosed based on the Rome IV criteria, who completed CTQ, LES, IBS-Quality of Life (IBS-QOL), and IBS-Severity Scoring System (IBS-SSS) were retrospectively included. Logistic and linear regression analyses were used to investigate the interaction effect between childhood trauma and negative events during adulthood on IBS.

Results: Female sex, childhood emotional abuse and neglect, and negative events during adulthood were associated with a higher prevalence of IBS. In IBS patients, childhood emotional abuse and neglect, as well as negative events during adulthood, were independently associated with more severe symptoms and worse quality of life. A significant interaction effect between childhood emotional trauma and negative events during adulthood was observed in IBS severity and quality of life, though no interaction effect was found in IBS development. Subsequent analyses revealed that the effect of negative events during adulthood on IBS severity and quality of life increased in IBS patients with childhood emotional trauma (IBS-SSS, β = 5.75, p < 0.001; IBS-QOL, β = 2.1, p < 0.001) compared with those without (IBS-SSS, β = 3.23, p < 0.001; IBS-QOL, β = 0.69, p = 0.011).

Conclusions: Childhood emotional trauma and negative events during adulthood were associated with IBS development, higher IBS severity, and worse quality of life. Furthermore, childhood emotional trauma increased the negative effect of negative events during adulthood on IBS severity and quality of life.

Keywords: Childhood trauma; Irritable bowel syndrome; Negative events during adulthood.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The project was approved by Ethics Committee of Tongji Hospital (2017 − 407). The informed consent of this study was signed by each patient. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Chey WD, Kurlander J, Eswaran S. Irritable bowel syndrome: a clinical review. JAMA. 2015;313:949–58. - PubMed
    1. Parker CH, Naliboff BD, Shih W, et al. Negative events during adulthood are associated with symptom severity and altered stress response in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2019;17:2245–52. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rahal H, Videlock EJ, Icenhour A, et al. Importance of trauma-related fear in patients with irritable bowel syndrome and early adverse life events. Neurogastroenterol Motil. 2020;32:e13896. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fukudo S, Okumura T, Inamori M, et al. Evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for irritable bowel syndrome 2020. J Gastroenterol. 2021;56:193–217. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vasant DH, Paine PA, Black CJ, et al. British society of gastroenterology guidelines on the management of irritable bowel syndrome. Gut. 2021;70:1214–40. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources