Episodic Memories Among Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Patients: An Important Aspect of the IBS Symptom Experience.

IBS patients often endorse episodic memories associated with symptom onset, and this recall seems to associate with more severe symptoms. Overgeneralization responses to negative stimuli may lead to worse bowel symptoms in those without episodic memories. IBS memory specificity may associate with qualitative differences in processing psychosocial experiences and might be important to IBS pathophysiology.