Hospitalization Experiences and Post-traumatic Stress in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Opportunities for Change

Clinical Education: Psychosocial Assessment and Treatment Planning for Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Psychosocial factors play an important role in the disease course and illness experience of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Consultation with a health psychologist is an important component of care for many IBD patients and provides an opportunity to identify areas of psychosocial concern, recognize coping deficits and strengths, and facilitate treatment recommendations. Psychosocial assessment in IBD requires a nuanced approach that goes beyond general mental health screening and considers the disease-specific concerns that impact patients. In this paper, we outline strategies for an IBD-focused psychological evaluation, including specific guidance for assessing disease-specific concerns of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, sleep, pain, body image disturbance, food-related quality of life, and psychological resilience.

Acute severe ulcerative colitis management: unanswered questions and latest insights

Acute severe ulcerative colitis (ASUC) is a distinctive ulcerative colitis flare presentation characterised by the presence of systemic inflammation as well as bloody diarrhoea, and occurs at least once in 25% of patients with ulcerative colitis during their disease course. Each episode carries a risk of complications, need for colectomy, and mortality. Little is known about ASUC pathogenesis, although impaired host-microbiota crosstalk involving pathobionts is suspected. In this Review, we discuss unanswered questions and results from the latest research on the medical-first-line, second-line, and potential third-line therapies-and surgical management of ASUC. We detail promising options for management, such as the use of enteral nutrition in combination with intravenous steroids, the ability to predict early failure of first-line or second-line therapies, and the emerging role of JAK inhibitors. An optimal framework to personalise therapy on the basis of multiomics tools is yet to be developed.

IBD-related mental health disorders: where do we go from here?

Inflammatory bowel disease is a complex and debilitating disease which is known to cause mental burden for patients. Even though few studies look at mental health disease in this cohort of patients, there is growing evidence of a correlation between disease activity and prevalence of mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. In this literature review, the relationship between inflammatory bowel disease and mental health disorders is explored, with an emphasis on recognition, screening and therapeutic options and special considerations for these complex comorbidities. The relationship between medical and psychological disease is not often considered and less well understood and there is a need for further research in these fields. Patients would have much to gain both medically and psychologically from a multidisciplinary approach to this chronic disease association.

Initial assessment of medical post-traumatic stress among patients with chronic esophageal diseases

BACKGROUND

Diagnosis and management of chronic esophageal disease requires the use of potentially traumatic medical procedures, performed with or without sedation. Medical trauma and post-traumatic stress (PTS) are emerging as important considerations in patients with digestive illness. To date, no study assesses medical PTS from procedures in patients with esophageal disease.

METHODS

Adult patients with achalasia, eosinophilic esophagitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease, or functional esophageal disease at a university-based gastroenterology clinic completed: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), Gastroesophageal Disease Questionnaire, Brief Esophageal Dysphagia Questionnaire, Northwestern Esophageal Quality of Life scale (HRQoL), NIH-PROMIS Depression scale, and a study-specific questionnaire about esophageal procedures (endoscopy with sedation; functional lumen imaging probe (FLIP) with sedation; high-resolution manometry (HRM); wireless pH testing; or 24-h pH-impedance testing).

KEY RESULTS

Half of 149 participants reported at least one traumatic procedure, with HRM most often cited. Only 2.7% met the cutoff for PTS on PCL-5. This increased to 7.1% for patients with a traumatic procedure combined with experiencing intense fear. Rates of moderate-severe PTS ranged from 7.4%-12% for all patients and 14%-29% for those with a traumatic procedure with fear. Medical PTS was associated with poorer HRQoL, and increased esophageal symptoms, depression, and hypervigilance and symptom anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS & INFERENCES

Preliminary evidence suggests medical PTS affects few patients with esophageal disease. However traumatic procedures, most often associated with HRM, significantly increase PTS symptoms. The potential impacts of medical PTS on esophageal patient assessment and outcomes are considerable and warrants further study.