Inflammatory bowel diseases are mainly treated medically, especially with the availability
of biological agents, but surgery is recommended when medical treatment fails, as in
ulcerative colitis, or when complications occur, as in Crohn's disease. Although IBD patients
who underwent surgery had a better quality of life, they also had a higher risk of depression
and anxiety than the general population. This study compared psychiatric morbidities
regarding anxiety and depression in surgically managed IBD patients to nonsurgically
managed patients.
The anxiety and depression prevalence were determined in 105 IBD patients, including
seven who underwent surgery, by performing a psychiatric interview using SCID I and assessing
depression and anxiety severity using the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D)
and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A), respectively. Similarity in surgically and nonsurgically
managed IBD patients might be due to small number of surgical patients.