Digestive Disease Week: Report
"The Power of Positive Thinking"
Digestive Disease Week: Report
"The Power of Positive Thinking"
Recently at the DDW Conference Dr Mittermaier and colleagues from the University of Vienna in Austria reported the results of their study, in which they looked at the relationship between depressive symptoms and disease activity in 51 patients with IBD (84% with Crohn's disease and 16% with ulcerative colitis).
In this study, patients' disease activity was moderate (61%) or severe (39%). At the beginning of the study patients were classified into those with or without a "depressive mood" using a standard scale for measuring depression. 21 of the 51 included patients were found to have a depressive mood (41%). This was independent of prior disease course, disease severity and duration, and age.
Depression associated with active disease
Patients with depressive mood showed more anxiety and lower disease-related quality of life compared with non-depressed patients. During 18 months of follow-up, patients with depressive mood had significantly more phases of active disease, and the number of relapses was significantly related to the level of anxiety. The authors concluded that "a depressive coping style could be an additional risk factor for relapse in IBD".
Accentuate the positive!
Perhaps these results might provide some motivation to "accenuate the positive", and not only improve your mood, but also your IBD activity.
Thinking positive good for kids too.
In another study looking at psychological factors in IBD, US researchers reported that quality of life in children and adolescents with moderate IBD was likely to be higher when a "positive coping style" is employed.
Characteristics of a positive coping style were defined as less "blaming others" and "self-criticism" behaviours. The researchers suggested that teaching young people with IBD some positive coping behaviours may be influential in improving their daily functioning.
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