ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to identify the role of psychological factors and stressful life events in the pathogenesis of functional dyspepsia patients. Patients and Forty consecutive patients referred to the Psychiatry Department from the Gastroenterology Department at the King Hussein Medical Centre were diagnosed as suffering from functional dyspepsia after negative clinical examinations via the means of ultrasonography, endoscopy and barium meals, compared with a control group, also consisting of forty patients and matched in sex, age and education. Both groups were interviewed and assessed by a psychiatrist and a psychologist using the Jordanian Version of the Cornell Index N2 and the Arabic Version of the Life Events Scale. Functional dyspepsia patients scored significantly higher on anxiety, fear, depression, hypochondriasis, somatization and psychopathic sub-scales as well as suffering from more stresses than the control group. When comparing female and male dyspeptic patients it was revealed that females suffered from more psychological disorders than males. This study concludes that psychological factors and stressful life events play a major role in developing symptoms of dyspepsia in some individuals, and an early psychosocial assessment of such patients would prevent subjecting a fair number of them to chronicity as well as costly time consuming physical investigations