Background: Depression and anxiety are comorbidities of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and it is now recommended to screen IBD patients for these conditions. We screened patients using a novel computerized adaptive testing technology and compared the screening results to measures of disease activity.
Methods: Consecutive patients at our tertiary IBD clinic were asked to complete the validated CAT-MH™ survey (Adaptive Testing Technologies, Chicago, IL); we then reviewed disease and patient characteristics. Clinical remission status was determined based on clinical, laboratory, endoscopy and imaging results. Statistical methods included Fisher's exact test and Pearson Chi-square tests to assess association. Univariable and multivariable analyses were performed.
Results: We included 134 patients, of which 34 (25.3%) screened positive for depression and 18 (13.4%) screened positive for anxiety. We identified 19 (55.9 %) and 10 (55.5%) patients who were previously undiagnosed for depression and anxiety, respectively. Patients in clinical remission were less likely to screen positive for depression (OR 0.19; 95%CI 0.07-0.50) and for anxiety (OR 0.30; 95%CI 0.10-0.91). Compared to patients with negative CRP values, patients with positive CRP were more likely to also screen positive for depression (p=0.025) and anxiety (p=0.15).
Conclusions: We demonstrate the utility of a novel testing technology for screening patients with IBD for depression and anxiety. We found a large number of patients with previously undiagnosed anxiety or depression and a significant positive association between clinically active IBD and these mental health conditions. This work supports and informs recommendations for mental health screening in the IBD population.
Keywords: anxiety; comorbidities; depression; inflammatory bowel disease; mental health.