Evaluation of prakṛti and quality-of-life in patients with irritable bowel syndrome

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prakṛti of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients and its association with IBS subtypes and quality-of-life (QOL). METHODOLOGY: IBS patients with the consistent subtype in the last 6 months were recruited. Prakṛti assessment with a 24-item questionnaire was performed and depending on the scores the patients were categorized into vāta predominant, pitta predominant, and kapha predominant prakṛti. QOL was assessed with prevalidated disease-specific 34-item questionnaire scored on a 0–100 scale. RESULTS: Of 50 IBS patients enrolled, with mean age of 43.5 ± 12.8 years, and male: female as 43:7, 22 patients were of vāta and pitta predominant prakṛti each while six patients had kapha predominant prakṛti. IBS-C was diagnosed in 24 patients, IBS-D in 21, and IBS-M in five patients. In vāta predominant group, IBS-C was found in 13 patients, IBS-D in 8, and IBS-M in 1. In pitta predominant group, IBS-D was found in 13, IBS-C in 6, and IBS-M in 3. In kapha predominant group, IBS-C was found in 5 patients and IBS-M in 1. The median QOL in IBS-C group was 48.897, IBS-D was 38.97, and IBS-M was 66.911. The median QOL score 52.205, 42.27, and 55.51 in vāta, pitta, and kapha predominant group, respectively. CONCLUSION: Majority of the vāta predominant patients had developed IBS-C, pitta predominant patients had developed IBS-D. QOL was better in pitta predominant individuals of all IBS-disease subtypes. With this, we find that prakṛti examination in IBS helps in detecting the proneness of developing an IBS subtype and predicting their QOL accordingly.