Poor psychological health highly prevalent in IBD patients

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) commonly experience poor psychological health, which point to the possibility that physical inflammation in the gut directly influences psychological state, according to a study.

The study included 300 participants (mean age 41.6 years, 47.3 percent female, 83 percent White) who received an IBD diagnosis during their index outpatient appointment or inpatient admission. Researchers collected demographic data, disease-related information, and diagnosis of a pre-existing common mental disorder. Symptoms of a common mental disorder were evaluated using the hospital anxiety and depression score, and gastrointestinal symptom-specific anxiety was assessed using the Visceral Sensitivity Index (VSI).

Of the participants, 33 percent had Crohn’s disease, 54 percent had ulcerative colitis, 13 percent had unclassified IBD. Overall, 39 percent of participants reported symptoms of a common mental disorder, including anxiety in 35.7 percent and depression in 15.7 percent.

Factors such as younger age, female sex, tobacco use, a longer duration of symptoms prior to diagnosis, higher gastrointestinal symptom-specific anxiety, and stressful life events in the preceding 12 months correlated with a significantly increased likelihood of reporting common mental disorder symptoms.

Further analysis indicated a strong link between higher levels of anxiety and the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms (moderate VSI: odds ratio [OR], 2.19, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.00–4.79; high VSI: OR, 13.5, 95 percent CI, 5.86–31.2; p<0.001 for trend).