Abstract

THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE AND IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME

Panchalingala Swathi*, Challapur Pallavi Goud, Devika Thakur, Goldsmith Harika, A.V.Kishore Babu, Rupa Banerjee and A. Srinivasa Rao

ABSTRACT

Background: The mental health of a patient is equally important as the physical health in chronic conditions like IBD and IBS because these conditions involve the gut brain bidirectional interaction. The psychological status of the patient with IBD and IBS was correlated with the Patient’s Quality of life. Aim: To asses and compare the psychological distress and quality of life in patients with inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome. Objectives: To determine the severity of the disease, health related quality of life and to compare the relative impact of the disease on HRQOL, psychological profile and perceived burden of stressful life events in two groups of outputs suffering from IBD and IBS. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted in Asian Institute of Gastroenterology hospital, Hyderabad, over a period of 6 months which includes 319 cases. This study was conducted using validated questionnaires to evaluate severity, mental health, quality of life. Results: In our study IBD patients were found more anxious and depressed than the IBS patients. The quality of life of 78 IBD patients (29.6%) was found to be poor compared to the IBS patients where only 14 patients (25%) patient were found with poor quality of life. Conclusion: In this study 319 patients were assessed, the prevalence of IBD is more compared to IBS. Both males and females are equally affected with IBD and IBS. The psychological distress seems to be correlated with the Quality of life of patients.

Keywords: Inflammatory Bowel disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, psychological distress, quality of life.