A study, published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology, examined the impact depression has on inflammatory bowel disease patients.
Bharati Kochar, MD, of University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and colleagues used data from the Sinai-Helmsley Alliance for Research Excellence cohort to assess how depression was diagnosed and what effect baseline depression had on disease activity at follow-up. Exactly 2,798 Crohn's disease patients and 1,516 ulcerative colitis patients were studied. Researchers gave patients a questionnaire to determine initial depression.
Here's what they found:
1. Sixty-four percent of CD patients and 45 percent of UC patients were in disease remission at baseline.
2. Twenty percent of CD patients and 14 percent of UC patients identified as depressed.
3. Through the questionnaire, researchers determined 38 percent of CD patients and 32 percent of UC patients were depressed.
4. Adjusted for gender, remission and disease activity, both CD and UC patients with baseline depression were more likely to experience a disease relapse.
Researchers concluded, "Baseline depression is associated with a higher risk for aggressive IBD at follow-up. A single question is not a sensitive method of assessing depression. Providers should consider administering the [questionnaire to] capture those at greater risk for aggressive disease."