Psychological Aspects of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

In the Western world around 360 in every 100,000 individuals have inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a relapsing-remitting autoimmune disease that affects the gastrointestinal tract. Its impact on individual functioning across physical and psychosocial domains is significant and psychological distress is a common feature, with research suggesting that active IBD is associated with one of the highest rates of depression and anxiety of all chronic illnesses. Despite the high prevalence of mental he