Why do IBS patients have so many additional procedures that rarely help them?

“According to Spiegel, IBS patients often suffer from somatization. Since patients with somatization are sometimes perceived as ‘complainers’ by their doctors, the researchers hypothesized that physicians might respond to these complaints by ordering excessive tests instead of treating the somatization itself.

Researchers found that patients with high levels of somatization were not more likely to seek gastrointestinal care than those with low levels of the condition. Once evaluated for care by the doctors however, the patients with more severe somatization were significantly more likely to utilize more health care services.

‘This finding suggests that the doctors and not the patients may be driving the need for procedures and surgeries that may not be necessary,” said Dr. Brennan M.R. Spiegel, assistant professor of medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. ‘We need to educate and train doctors to recognize somatization and treat this condition appropriately, rather than order a number of diagnostic tests as a reaction in the face of symptoms that are otherwise difficult to explain.'”