THE MEANING OF RELAPSE PRECIPITATING LIFE EVENTS AND FEELINGS IN PATIENTS WITH INFLAMMATORY BOWEL-DISEASE - RESULTS OF A PROSPECTIVE-STUDY OVER 3 YEARS

This study examined whether life event stress under general or more sp ecific conditions (fear of separation, feeling of being under pressure , feeling of being caught between two quarreling parties, separation e xperiences) contribute to the aggravation of inflammatory bowel diseas e. Firstly, 51 patients with ulcerative colitis, 57 patients with Croh n's disease, and 60 controls were compared in terms of these variables . In addition, the IBD patients filled out questionnaires regarding li fe events, the specific psychological conditions mentioned above, and their symptoms several times in the three years after the first measur ement. By means of group comparisons and intraindividual correlations between relapse precipitating life events and illness activity, only f eelings of being under pressure showed a modest correlation to the dis ease activity. We conclude that the variables in question have little influence on the beginning of the relapse.