Correlations between depressive condition and gastroesophageal reflux symptoms in patients visiting a department of general medicine

To clarify the potential relevance of patients' chief complaints at a general medicine department to their self-rating depression scale (SDS) and frequency scale for symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) (FSSG) scores, we analyzed data of 478 patients who visited our general medicine department. The chief complaints (553 symptoms of 447 patients) were categorized into major symptom-based groups: respiratory (31%), circulatory (3%), gastrointestinal (GI) tract (26%), neurology (8%), orthopedic and skin (10%), and systemic (22%) symptoms. The SDS score tended to be higher in females and younger patients. The FSSG score did not differ by gender but was higher in younger patients. The patients receiving social welfare had higher SDS and FSSG scores. A close inter-relationship between the FSSG (including both degrees of reflux and dysmotility) and SDS was observed in all patients. Although the averages of the SDS and FSSG scores were not significantly different among the symptom-based categories, we observed significantly positive correlations between the FSSG and SDS in each category, suggesting that depressive status may be closely related to GERD-related symptoms regardless of the patients' chief complaints. An initial checkup of patients' psychological condition and/or GERD-like symptoms could help screen for latent disorders in outpatients with uncertain complaints.