Four-year follow-up of psychiatric and psychosomatic profile in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

Bibliographic Data

ID15698545
AuthorsSara Gostoli (0000-0002-5828-4654, University of Bologna, corresponding author), Francesco Ferrara (0000-0002-7290-9542), Ludovica Quintavalle (University of Bologna), Sara Tommasino (University of Bologna), Graziano Gigante (0000-0001-9394-4227, University of Bologna), Maria Montecchiarini (University of Bologna), Alessia Urgese (University of Bologna), Francesco Guolo (0000-0003-0975-7731, Ospedale Bellaria), Regina Subach (0000-0003-2647-4899, University of Bologna), Angelica D’Oronzo (0009-0009-7799-5900, University of Bologna), Annamaria Polifemo, Federica Buonfiglioli, Vincenzo Cennamo (0000-0002-0585-7404), Chiara Rafanelli (0000-0003-3025-7918, University of Bologna)
Year2024
Volume12
Issue1
Pages211-211
Publication date2024-04-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBMC Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2050-7283 • E-ISSN: 2050-7283
PublisherBioMed Central (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1186/s40359-024-01726-5
PMID38632660
OpenAlexW4394887526
LanguageEN
References cited61

Psychological characterization of patients affected by Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) focuses on comorbidity with psychiatric disorders, somatization or alexithymia. Whereas IBD patients had higher risk of stable anxiety and depression for many years after the diagnosis of the disease, there is a lack of studies reporting a comprehensive psychosomatic assessment addressing factors of disease vulnerability, also in the long-term. The objective of this investigation is to fill this gap in the current literature. The aims were thus to assess: a) changes between baseline and a 4-year follow-up in psychiatric diagnoses (SCID), psychosomatic syndromes (DCPR), psychological well-being (PWB-I), lifestyle, gastrointestinal symptoms related to IBD and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)-like symptoms b) stability of psychiatric and psychosomatic syndromes at 4-year follow-up. A total of 111 IBD outpatients were enrolled; 59.5% of them participated at the follow-up. A comprehensive assessment, including both interviews and self-report questionnaires, was provided at baseline and follow-up. Results showed increased psychiatric diagnoses, physical activity, consumption of vegetables and IBS-like symptoms at follow-up. Additionally, whereas psychiatric diagnoses were no longer present and new psychopathological pictures ensued at follow-up, more than half of the sample maintained psychosomatic syndromes (particularly allostatic overload, type A behavior, demoralization) from baseline to follow-up. Long-term presence/persistence of such psychosocial burden indicates the need for integrating a comprehensive psychosomatic evaluation beyond traditional psychiatric nosography in IBD patients. Moreover, since psychosomatic syndromes represent vulnerability factors of diseases, further studies should target subgroups of patients presenting with persistent psychosomatic syndromes and worse course of the disease

Alexithymia · Anxiety · Comorbidity · Depression (economics · Disease · Irritable bowel syndrome · Psychiatry · Psychopathology · Psychosocial · Psychosomatics · Somatization · Clinical Psychology · Health, psychology, and well-being · Inflammatory Bowel Disease · Medicine · Microscopic Colitis · Psychology · Internal Medicine

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