Highlights
- •GERD may increase the risks of depressive, anxiety, and sleep disorders.
- •The development of psychiatric disorders may be the result of an inflammatory process caused by GERD.
- •Clinicians should pay particular attention to psychiatric comorbidities in GERD patients.
Abstract
Background
Recent studies have shown that the peripheral inflammation may cause the up-regulation
of central nervous system inflammation and therefore possibly plays a vital role in
the pathophysiology of subsequent psychiatric disorders.
Objective
We explored the relationship between gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and the
subsequent development of psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia as well as
bipolar, depressive, anxiety, and sleep disorders.
Methods
We investigated patients who were diagnosed with GERD according to the data in the
Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. A comparison cohort comprised
patients without GERD who were matched according to age and sex. The incidence rate
and the hazard ratios (HRs) of subsequent new-onset psychiatric disorders were calculated
for both cohorts, based on the diagnoses of psychiatrists.
Results
The GERD cohort consisted of 3813 patients, and the comparison cohort comprised 15,252
matched control patients without GERD. The risks of depressive disorder (HR = 3.37, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.49–4.57), anxiety disorder (HR = 2.99, 95% CI = 2.12–4.22), and sleep disorder (HR = 2.69, 95% CI = 1.83–3.94), were higher in the GERD cohort than in the comparison cohort. In addition,
the incidence of newly diagnosed depressive, anxiety, and sleep disorders remained
significantly increased in all of the stratified follow-up durations (0–1, ≥1 year).
Conclusions
GERD may increase the risks of subsequent depressive, anxiety, and sleep disorders.
These psychiatric disorders have a negative effect on people's quality of life. Clinicians
should pay a particular attention to psychiatric comorbidities in GERD patients.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 25, 2015
Accepted:
May 12,
2015
Received in revised form:
May 4,
2015
Received:
March 15,
2015
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
