Table 1 Characteristics of the study population according to irritable bowel syndrome subtypes, controls and depressed patients

	Patients			p vs Controls	p vs Depressed	IBS subtype		p Value
	IBS (n = 50)	Controls (n = 21)	Depressed (n = 11)	p vs Controls	p vs Depressed	IBS-C (n = 29)	IBS-D (n = 21)	p Value
Sex (F/M)	41/9	14/7	4/7	0.23	0.003	25/4	16/5	0.32
Age (years)	53.8 (12.0)	56.5 (9.5)	58.8 (7.9)	0.33	0.17	51.1 (13.5)	54.5 (12.2)	0.72
IBS duration (years)	8.3 (6.0	–	–	–	–	8.3 (6.1)	8.1 (5.9)	0.90
Bowel movements (no./week)	6.7 (6.4)	6.0 (1.9)	5.0 (1.7)	0.60	0.31	2.8 (1.6)	11.9 (7.1)	<0.001
Severity of abdominal pain/discomfort	2.5 (0.9)	0.1 (0.4)	0.1 (0.4)	0.001	0..001	2.5 (0.7)	2.4 (1.0)	0.63
Abdominal well-being	5.7 (1.6)	0.6 (0.5)	1.0 (0.4)	0.001	0.001	5.3 (1.7)	6.0 (1.4)	0.13

Quantitative data are expressed as mean (SD)
IBS, irritable bowel syndrome; IBS-C, IBS with constipation; IBS-D, IBS with diarrhoea; F/M, females/males.