GERD CAUSES ANXIETY & HYPERVIGILANCE
GASTROENTEROLOGY NERD ALERT:
GERD CAUSES ANXIETY & HYPERVIGILANCE
Check out the link from Healio about recent study results presented at Digestive Disease Week conference demonstrating how heartburn and reflux can create anxiety and increased focus on sensations in their esophagus. “Regardless of physiologic symptoms and acid exposure, patients across the GERD spectrum regularly experience esophageal hypervigilance and symptom-specific anxiety.”
“People that are hypervigilant are highly focused on the esophagus, on the sensations and any foods that may cause symptoms,” Livia Guadagnoli, a clinical psychology doctoral candidate at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said in her presentation. “There is also typically an activation of the body’s stress system.”
“Guadagnoli said their findings show that psychological processes are present across the GERD spectrum, whether or not patients had active acid exposure.
“Someone that is experiencing 4 straight days of abnormal acid exposure who is consistently experiencing frequent and severe symptoms might be at risk for developing some hypervigilance or even anxiety around those symptoms,” Guadagnoli said. “Just because someone has abnormal acid, doesn’t mean they are exempt from developing the psychological and behavioral processes that might be maintaining the symptoms even despite acid being there.”
If you are interested in ways to improve your GERD symptoms, and the possible coexisting anxiety that the symptoms may have created, we can help. Our dietitian can help with nutritional interventions, our behavioral coach can help optimize the mind-gut component, the team can assist with weight management (which plays a significant role in GERD), and our gastroenterologist can assist with endoscopy or medication needs, if necessary. Services from the dietitian and behavioral coach are very likely to be covered by insurance – please call us at 224.407.4400 or email us at info@compgihealth.com and we will find out for you!