HEALTH-RELATED CONCERNS OF PEOPLE WHO RECEIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT FOR INFLAMMATORY BOWEL-DISEASE

BACKGROUND: People with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) cope with a n umber of disease-specific concerns which may result in referrals for s upportive counselling. OBJECTIVE: To determine differences between the health-related concerns of people with IBD who seek counselling or ar e referred for psychiatric assessment and those who have no recent con tact with counselling or psychiatry; METHODS: Forty-five consecutive p atients with IBD referred for psychiatric Consultation and 31 IBD out- patients who had recent counselling were compared with 190 IBD out-pat ients at the same hospital with no recent history of counselling. Dise ase; related concerns, demographic data and perceived symptom severity were assessed with self-report instruments. RESULTS: Counselling pati ents had greater overall intensity of concern. Counselling patients di ffered from noncounselling patients on several measures related to ill ness severity and were more likely to be female. Correcting statistica lly for, illness severity and sex, the counselled patients had signifi cantly higher levels of concern about being a burden, pain and sufferi ng, feeling out of control, financial difficulties, feeling alone, sex ual performance, feeling dirty or smelly and being treated as differen t. CONCLUSIONS: Beyond the intensity of their physical suffering, pati ents who seek counselling report a pattern of concern in which interpe rsonal and:emotional concerns are prominent compared with those Of out -patients who do not seek counselling. Clinicians should be aware of i nterpersonal concerns, which may increase the need for empathic suppor t. Psychosocial interventions in IBD may be indicated without respect to psychiatric comorbidity.