Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on symptoms in patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders: Relationship with anxiety and perceived stress.

Background: Psychological stress and anxiety, such those generated by forced quarantine, affect gastrointestinal symptoms course in patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders. Thus, our aim was to assess, in a cohort of patients regularly followed up in a devoted outpatient clinic of Southern Italy, the association between their gastrointestinal symptoms changes, stress, and anxiety reported during the Italian lockdown.

Methods: We recruited patients from the outpatient clinic of the University of Salerno, devoted to functional gastrointestinal disorders, selecting only patients for whom an evaluation was available in the last 6 months before the lockdown.