Stress and IBD

There was an interesting correlation mentioned while I was researching about inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). This article examined the association between stress and IBD. In the past, there were several studies done that illustrated how IBD is affected by psychological components such as stress. With recent findings, research has shown that stress does not induce IBD; however, because of the past association between stress and IBD, the general public believes this false correlation. Often times, diseases such as IBD bring about stress and manifest effects through symptoms. In IBD, irritability, depression, or panic attacks can occur due to stress making IBD worse.

Another article I found on PubMed looked into the psychological aspects of inflammatory diseases and mentioned that stress does play a factor in IBD. Not only does it aggravate IBD, some believe that stress can cause IBD. Stress can affect the functions of secretion, vascular structure, and motility of the GI tract.

To examine if stress is associated with IBD, another case study evaluated stress by life even occurrences in Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis patients along with two control groups. Various questionnaires were utilized to assess stress in patients. It was concluded in this paper that stress such as life event is not considered an independent risk factor for the cause of IBD.

It appears to me that there is varying knowledge of the association of stress and IBD. The general public seems to relate the two as one causing the other while medical researchers do not categorize it as a risk factor but a factor that aggravates onset of the disease.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=3765643&ordinalpos=237&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=3765643&ordinalpos=237&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum