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. 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.

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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.

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