OBJECTIVETo investigate the prevalence of functional dyspepsia (FD) and the psychological disorders in Chinese population and their relation.

METHODSA total of 1016 apparently healthy people (study population) randomly selected from population were interviewed. A general questionnaire, Zung self-rating depression scales (SDS), and anxiety scales (SAS) were given to each subject. Seventy-two inpatients with confirmed diagnosis of FD, 84 with organic dyspepsia, and 197 with other organic diseases were also studied.

RESULTSAmong the study population, 23.5% had FD and 9. 1% had disturbances of depression and/or anxiety. The prevalence of psychological disturbances in FD group (15.5%) differed significantly from that in non-FD group (7.1%, P < 0.01 ) . In the survey of inpatients, the rate of depression/anxiety in FD group (54.2%) was greater than that in organic dyspepsia group (19.0%) and other organic diseases group (28.9%), P < 0.05, and was also significantly higher than that of the FD cases in the study population (15.5%), P < 0.01. Further analysis showed that some psychosocial disturbances were risk factors of FD.

CONCLUSIONBoth FD and depression/anxiety disturbances are common in China, and there is a link between them.