Complementary & alternative medicine use in patients with IBD

[Guest guest]

Patterns of complementary and

alternative medicine (CAM) use in

patients with inflammatory bowel disease: Perceived stress is a potential

indicator for CAM use

Jost Langhorst, Inga B. Anthonisen, Ulf Steder-Neukamm, Rainer Luedtk,

Guenther Spahn, s Michalsen

and Gustav J. Dobos

University of Duisburg-Essen, Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis

Association DCCV e.V., Germany

cKarl

and Carstens Foundation, Essen,

Germany

The

reasons for using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)

and the perception of stress in a group of patients with inflammatory bowel

disease (IBD) who are actively interested in CAM were

compared with those of a randomly selected group of IBD patients (controls).

Methods:

Participants

in a national lay workshop on CAM of the German Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis

Association (DCCV) (the study group) and a representative sample of the

approximately 16,000 members and associates of the DCCV (the control group)

were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire that covered

socio-demographic data, past medical history, stress perception, current

conventional treatment, and interest in, and usage of, CAM.

Results

One-hundred

and twelve (80%) of the approximately 140 participants of the lay workshop and

684 (68.8%) of the 994 IBD patients in the control group completed and returned

the questionnaires. The duration of illness, taken as

the time since diagnosis, was shorter for the participants of the lay workshop

than for the control group (p = 0.0035),

and fewer workshop patients stated that their disease was currently “in

remission” (p = 0.0377). The two groups did not differ significantly in their

experiences with CAM use.

Among

personal reasons given for CAM use, the “lack of success of conventional

therapy” (p = 0.014),

the wish “to take a holistic therapeutic approach” (p = 0.0008), and “a

different point of view from that of my physician about the cause of, and

treatment options for, IBD” (p = 0.038)

were chosen more often in the group of workshop participants than in the

control patients. A total of 92% of the workshop

patients perceived stress as having a negative effect on their IBD; this is a

significantly greater percentage than in the control group (70.5%; p = 0.0001).

Conclusions

A group

of IBD patients with an active interest in CAM

showed distinct differences from a randomly selected group of IBD patients in

their reasons for using CAM, particularly in their wish

to take a holistic therapeutic approach. Patients who

think that stress has a negative effect on their IBD appear to be more likely

to use CAM.

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