, a new U.K. study suggests.
The retrospective, observational study of young people with IBD versus those without assessed the incidence of a wide range of mental health conditions in people aged 5-25 years.
“Anxiety and depression will not be a surprise to most of us. But we also saw changes for eating disorders, PTSD, and sleep changes,” said Richard K. Russell, MD, a pediatric gastroenterologist at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh.
Dr. Russell presented the research at the annual congress of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation, held in Copenhagen and virtually.
The findings indicate an unmet need for mental health care for young patients with IBD, he said. “All of us at ECCO need to address this gap.”
Key findings
Dr. Russell and colleagues identified 3,898 young people diagnosed with IBD in the 10-year period Jan. 1, 2010, through Jan. 1, 2020, using the Optimum Patient Care Research Database, which includes de-identified data from more than 1,000 general practices across the United Kingdom. They used propensity score matching to create a control group of 15,571 people without IBD, controlling for age, sex, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and health conditions other than IBD.
Median follow-up was about 3 years.
The cumulative lifetime risk for developing any mental health condition by age 25 was 31.1% in the IBD group versus 25.1% in controls, a statistically significant difference.
Compared with the control group, the people with incident IBD were significantly more likely to develop the following:
- PTSD.
- Eating disorders.
- Self-harm.
- Sleep disturbance.
- Depression.
- Anxiety disorder.
- ‘Any mental health condition.’
Those most are risk included males overall, and specifically boys aged 12-17 years. Those with Crohn’s disease versus other types of IBD were also most at risk.
In a subgroup analysis, presented as a poster at the meeting, Dr. Russell and colleagues also found that mental health comorbidity in children and young adults with IBD is associated with increased IBD symptoms and health care utilization, as well as time off work.
Children and young adults with both IBD and mental health conditions should be monitored and receive appropriate mental health support as part of their multidisciplinary care, Dr. Russell said.
Dr. Russell added that the study period ended a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic began, so the research does not reflect its impact on mental health in the study population.
“The number of children and young adults we’re seeing in our clinic with mental health issues has rocketed through the roof because of the pandemic,” he said.
Dr. Russell suggested that the organization create a psychology subgroup called Proactive Psychologists of ECCO, or Prosecco for short.