P530 Psychosexual dysfunction in Greek patients with inflammatory bowel disease in remission

Abstract Background inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) plays an important role in patients’ psychological and sexual wellbeing, thus affecting severely their quality of life. We aimed to measure the incidence of psychosexual malfunction in Greek IBD patients as opposed to healthy controls. Methods IBD patients, aged 18–65 were asked to participate during their visit in our outpatient ward. Volunteers participated as controls after sex, age, BMI and smoking habits matching. Anxiety and depression were evaluated with the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) and Zung Self Rated Depression scale accordingly. Impaired sexual function was measured using the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) for men and the Brief Index of Sexual Function in Women (BISFW) for the female patients. Individuals identified as single were excluded from completing the latter questionnaire. Results A total of 153 patients (48.4% female, median age 44 y/o), 101 (66.1%) with Crohn’s disease (CD), 52 (33.9%) with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 43 volunteers (67.4% female, median age 40 y/o) participated in the study. Overall anxiety was recorded in 32.7% of the patients and in 14% of the healthy controls (OR = 2.99, 95% CI = 1.2–7.5, p = 0.02). Depression was recorded in 10.5% of the patients and in 4.7% of controls (p = 0.37). Sexual dysfunction was recorded in 42.7% of the patients and in 10.5% of the healthy controls (OR = 6.3, 95% CI = 2.1–18.9, p < 0.001). 22.8% of male IBD patients had anxiety (p = 0.06), 8.9% depression (p = 0.58) and 33.3% erectile dysfunction (p = 0.9). 41.9% of the female patients had anxiety (p = 0.04), 12.2% depression (p = 0.78) and 54.1% sexual dysfunction (p < 0.001). Anxiety was recorded in 36.6% of the CD patients and in 25% of the UC patients (p = 0.14). Depression for CD and UC was 8.9% and 13.5%, respectively (p = 0.38). Sexual dysfunction for CD patients was 44.8% and for UC patients 38.6% (p = 0.49). In patients with perianal disease anxiety was measured at 25.7% (p = 0.07), depression at 8.6% (p = 0.89) and sexual dysfunction at 33.3% (p = 0.10). The duration of disease did not affect significantly any of the aspects measured. Conclusions IBD patients tend to have higher levels of anxiety and impaired sexual function compared with the healthy controls even with satisfactory control of their disease. Further studies clarifying the factors associated with their malfunction, as well as therapeutic interventions in order to improve the quality o