Media Releases

Generalized anxiety disorders twice as likely in those with inflammatory bowel disease

July 29, 2015

TORONTO, ON – Peo­ple who have inflam­ma­to­ry bow­el dis­ease (IBD), such as Crohn’s dis­ease or ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis, have twice the odds of hav­ing a gen­er­al­ized anx­i­ety dis­or­der at some point in their lives when com­pared to peers with­out IBD, accord­ing to a new study pub­lished by Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to researchers.

“Patients with IBD face sub­stan­tial chron­ic phys­i­cal prob­lems asso­ci­at­ed with the dis­ease,” said lead-author Pro­fes­sor Esme Fuller-Thom­son, San­dra Rot­man Endowed Chair at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Fac­tor-Inwen­tash Fac­ul­ty of Social Work. “The addi­tion­al bur­den of anx­i­ety dis­or­ders makes life much more chal­leng­ing so this ‘dou­ble jeop­ardy’ must be addressed.”

Inves­ti­ga­tors report­ed that female IBD suf­fer­ers were par­tic­u­lar­ly vul­ner­a­ble to anx­i­ety dis­or­ders. Women with IBD had four times the odds of anx­i­ety when com­pared to men with IBD, said Fuller-Thom­son.

Data were drawn from a rep­re­sen­ta­tive sam­ple of more than 22,000 Cana­di­ans, the 2012 Cana­di­an Com­mu­ni­ty Health Study: Men­tal Health. A total of 269 respon­dents report­ed that they had been diag­nosed by a health pro­fes­sion­al with Crohn’s dis­ease or ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis.

“The study draws atten­tion to the need for rou­tine screen­ing and tar­get­ed inter­ven­tions for anx­i­ety dis­or­ders,” said co-author and adjunct lec­tur­er Joanne Sul­man. “Par­tic­u­lar­ly among the most vul­ner­a­ble patients with IBD: women, indi­vid­u­als who are in chron­ic pain and those with a his­to­ry of child­hood sex­u­al abuse.”

Co-author and for­mer grad­u­ate stu­dent, Rusan Lateef, not­ed two oth­er fac­tors that were asso­ci­at­ed with anx­i­ety dis­or­ders among those with IBD. “Of par­tic­u­lar inter­est was the six-fold odds of anx­i­ety dis­or­ders we found among those with IBD who had a his­to­ry of child­hood sex­u­al abuse. Not sur­pris­ing­ly, we also found that those who report­ed mod­er­ate or severe chron­ic pain had twice the odds of anx­i­ety dis­or­ders in com­par­i­son to those with only mild or no chron­ic pain.”

Patrick McGowan, an assis­tant pro­fes­sor of bio­log­i­cal sci­ences at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Scar­bor­ough, says one of the rea­sons this study is so sig­nif­i­cant is because it under­lines the impor­tant link between phys­i­cal and men­tal health.

“We some­times think of the two as if they are entire­ly sep­a­rate enti­ties but the real­i­ty is they are inti­mate­ly linked,” said McGowan. “Both involve gen­uine phys­i­cal changes in the body and affect each oth­er.” McGowan was not direct­ly involved with the study.

McGowan notes that although the study was not designed to deter­mine the bio­log­i­cal mech­a­nisms of anx­i­ety dis­or­ders or inflam­ma­to­ry bow­el dis­eases, adverse life expe­ri­ences and chron­ic anx­i­ety can hijack the stress response sys­tem, poten­tial­ly affect­ing a whole host of bod­i­ly process­es, includ­ing chron­ic inflam­ma­tion.

“This study asks about the asso­ci­a­tion between these process­es, so we don’t know cause-and-effect, but treat­ment options are like­ly to expand if the options are broad­er than phys­i­cal or men­tal health alone.”

The study was pub­lished online this week in the jour­nal Inflam­ma­to­ry Bow­el Dis­eases.

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For more infor­ma­tion con­tact:

Michael Kennedy
Media Rela­tions
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Office: 416–946-5025
m.kennedy@utoronto.ca

Prof. Esme Fuller-Thom­son
Pro­fes­sor & San­dra Rot­man Endowed Chair
Fac­tor-Inwen­tash Fac­ul­ty of Social Work &
Depart­ment of Fam­i­ly & Com­mu­ni­ty Med­i­cine
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
esme.fuller.thomson@utoronto.ca