Burden of depression and anxiety among patients with inflammatory bowel disease: results of a nationwide analysis

• Published in: International journal of colorectal disease Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 313 - 321
• Main Authors: Tarar, Zahid Ijaz, Zafar, Muhammad Usman, Farooq, Umer, Ghous, Ghulam, Aslam, Aysha, Inayat, Faisal, Ghouri, Yezaz A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-02-2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Anxiety; Anxiety - epidemiology; Cardiovascular disease; Chronic Disease; Chronic illnesses; Colitis, Ulcerative; Coronary artery; Crohn's disease; Crohns disease; Depression - epidemiology; Depression - etiology; Diabetes mellitus; Diagnosis; Gastroenterology; Heart diseases; Hepatology; Humans; Inflammatory bowel disease; Inflammatory bowel diseases; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases - complications; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases - epidemiology; Internal Medicine; Intestine; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Metastases; Original Article; Patients; Proctology; Retrospective Studies; Statistical analysis; Surgery; Ulcerative colitis; United States - epidemiology; United States; Inflammatory bowel disease; Depression; Anxiety; Crohn's disease; Ulcerative colitis
• DOI: 10.1007/s00384-021-04056-9
• EISSN: 1432-1262
• ISSN: 0179-1958

Purpose
The burden of psychiatric disorders is on a rise in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients which has shown to effect medication compliance and overall clinical outcomes. We studied the prevalence of depression and anxiety in IBD patients when compared to individuals with other chronic medical conditions.
Methods
This is a retrospective cohort study using the United States national inpatient sample of 2016 to 2018. We identified patient encounters with a diagnosis of IBD. Our primary outcome was prevalence of depression and anxiety in IBD patients when compared to general adult population with other chronic medical conditions. We further studied these outcomes in subgroups of patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.
Results
A total of 963,619 patient encounters were identified with the diagnosis of IBD between 2016 and 2018, of them 162,850 (16.9%) had depression and 201,685 (20.9%) had anxiety. The prevalence of depression and anxiety was significantly higher in IBD patients in comparison to general population, (16.9% vs 12.3%) and (20.9% vs 15%) respectively (
p
 < 0.001). Association of depression and anxiety was also higher in IBD patients when compared to patients with other chronic conditions like diabetes, metastatic cancer, and coronary artery disease. Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis were independently associated with increased odds of depression and anxiety and these results were statistically significant (
p
 < 0.001).
Conclusions
IBD is associated with increased prevalence of depression and anxiety when compared to general population. Association of these psychiatric illnesses with IBD is significantly higher when compared to other chronic medical conditions.