The Link Between Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Depression – Medical Bag

Depression affecteda quarter of people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and was independentlylinked to an increase in disease activity, according to study results publishedin Neurogastroenterology and Motility.

Investigatorsconducted a cross-sectional study to determine how emotional processing biaseswould affect the development of depression in individuals with IBD.

Depression was more frequently associated with being a woman, lacking social support, having active disease, taking corticosteroids (but not tumor necrosis factor inhibitors), and expressing negative emotional recognition bias. Depression was also associated with a series of sociodemographic, IBD-related, and psychological factors, such as negative biases in emotional recognition; however, results from the multivariable analysis suggested that only lack of social support and greater disease activity were linked to depression. The use of causal step analysis revealed that the relationship between IBD activity and depression was partly mediated by emotional recognition bias, as the researchers had originally hypothesized.

Of the 120 outpatients with IBD who were asked to participate in the study, 68 patients had Crohn disease and 49 had ulcerative colitis; 35 of these patients had active disease and 26 had depression.

The authorsmentioned that further research is required to investigate mechanismsunderlying the development and maintenance of depression and, in particular, totest our hypotheses that that the association between diseaseactivity/inflammation and depression might be mediated via emotional processingbiases.

Our findingsraise the possibility that psychological interventions targeting emotionalrecognition biases among people with IBD, could be used to treat or evenprevent depression in high risk individuals, such as those with active IBD, andthereby possibly improve medical as well as psychological outcomes,concluded the investigators.

Please refer to theoriginal article for disclosure information.

Reference

Wilkinson B, Trick L, Knight A, et al. Factors associated with depression in people withinflammatory bowel disease: the relationship between active disease and biasesin neurocognitive processing. Neurogastroenterol Motil. 2019;31(8):1-11.

This article originally appeared on Clinical Advisor

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The Link Between Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Depression - Medical Bag