Chang, Full-Young, Lu, Ching-Liang · Journal of neurogastroenterology and motility · 2013 · DOI
This editorial examines two common chronic pain conditions—irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and migraine—and explores whether they might be related. Both conditions are more common in women, significantly reduce quality of life, and often occur together in the same patients. The authors suggest these disorders may share underlying causes related to how the nervous system processes pain, rather than being completely separate diseases.
This editorial is relevant to ME/CFS patients because it identifies central sensitization and shared pain processing mechanisms across multiple chronic conditions. Many ME/CFS patients experience comorbid IBS and migraine, so understanding their potential shared biological basis could inform treatment approaches and help validate the neurobiological nature of these overlapping syndromes.
This editorial does not prove causation or establish a definitive biological mechanism linking IBS and migraine. As a narrative review, it presents no new experimental data and does not establish whether these conditions share a common etiology or are simply frequently co-occurring. The hypothesized central sensitization framework remains unproven and requires mechanistic studies.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Chang, Full-Young & Lu, Ching-Liang (2013). Irritable bowel syndrome and migraine: bystanders or partners?. Journal of neurogastroenterology and motility. https://doi.org/10.5056/jnm.2013.19.3.301
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-chang-2013-irritable-bowel,
author = {Chang, Full-Young and Lu, Ching-Liang},
title = {Irritable bowel syndrome and migraine: bystanders or partners?},
journal = {Journal of neurogastroenterology and motility},
year = {2013},
doi = {10.5056/jnm.2013.19.3.301},
note = {PubMed: 23875096},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/chang-2013-irritable-bowel},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/chang-2013-irritable-bowel
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.