Screen for psychiatric disorders
Tiffany Taft, PsyD, a research associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University, Chicago, who was not involved in the study, agreed that patients with EoE should be screened more often for psychiatric disorders.
“We’ve found that symptom-specific anxiety is prevalent and associated with other outcomes, like quality of life, so it may not be the typical anxiety that you would diagnose from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” Dr. Taft said in an interview.
While anxiety is not likely to trigger EoE, it can worsen the symptoms, she said. Sometimes helping patients make the connection between their mental health and EoE can address the anxiety itself.
“Education is good enough for a certain chunk of patients,” Dr. Taft said.
Other patients benefit from cognitive-behavioral therapy, which gives them a more realistic understanding of their situation.
“We also add in relaxation, deep breathing, and guided imagery to calm down the stress response in the body, which is part of that brain-gut connection that enhances symptom severity,” she said.
Some patients prefer medications, or they rely on medication because that is what their insurance provides, she said, adding that most patients do best with a combination of medication and talk therapy.
Ideally, people with these disorders would be referred to someone such as herself, a psychotherapist with a specialty in gastroenterology, Dr. Taft said. But there are not many people in that subspecialty, so if a gastroenterology psychologist is not available, a psychologist who specializes in treating mental illness associated with chronic diseases is a good second choice.
The study was funded by Örebro County Council and Karolinska Institutet. Dr. Röjler and Dr. Taft reported no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.