Does bowel disease influence your speech ability?

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Words fail me: the verbal IQ deficit in inflammatory bowel disease and irritable

bowel syndrome.Dancey CP, Attree EA, Stuart G, C, Sonnet A.School of

Psychology, University of East London, London, UK.

C.P.Dancey@...: Many

chronic illnesses are accompanied by impaired cognitive functioning. In

people with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), there is some research to

suggest a decrement in verbal IQ (VIQ), when compared to people with

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and healthy controls. Although this is an

important finding, it is necessary to ensure that such deficits are not

due to methodological problems such as the failure to take into account

pre-morbid functioning.METHODS: A

total of 88 people (IBD, N = 29; IBS, N = 29; Controls, N = 30)

completed the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI), the

Wechsler Test of Adult Reading (WATR), the Trait Rumination

Questionnaire (TRQ), the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression

Scale (CES-D), and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12).RESULTS: We

found evidence of a VIQ decrement in both IBD and IBS groups when

measured against both healthy controls and against their own pre-morbid

IQ scores (WTAR-Predicted WAIS-III IQ measures). However, the decrement

was larger (and of clinical significance) in the IBD group but not in

the IBS group.CONCLUSION: Some

tentative evidence is presented which suggests that poor VIQ

performance may be due in part to interference from excessive

rumination.