P642 Anxiety and depression: beyond simple consequences of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases

Abstract Background Patients with inflammatory bowel disease show high level of stress, compared with general population or other categories of patients. The study’s objectives are to determine the prevalence of anxiety and depression among patients with IBD in comparison to a statistically balanced control population, to study the prevalence differences depending on the type of disease and various demographic characters, to compare the levels of anxiety and depression in patients in remission with patients with active disease and control subjects respectively and to assess the correlation between psychological stress intensity and the disease duration and other various parameters of IBD disease activity. Methods This study enrolled 72 patients diagnosed with IBD in the Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Iasi, Romania, between 1 January 2018 and 15th November 2018. The control group consisted of 35 healthy subjects and were recruited from the patients’ families, hospital staff, and other volunteers. Anxiety and depression assessment was done using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). For each subject, there were recorded the education level as representing the highest level reached, the economic status estimated by the investigator through interview. The mean scores for the patients and the control group were calculated. Subsequently, the patient group was subdivided depending on the primary disease (UC or CD). The analysis was performed by dividing the values, stratifying the group of patients in remission or active phase and comparing with controls. Results The average anxiety score of the patients group was 9.78 ± 4.89, and in the control group 5.29 ± 3.72.(p < 0.01). Depression average score was 7.06 ± 4.14 for patients and 4.06 ± 2.79 for the control group (p < 0.01). There were 51 patients with UC (70.83%) and 21 with CD (29.17%). The mean anxiety score of UC patients was 10.06 ± 5.06, whereas for CD it was 9.1 ± 4.5(p = 0.45). Regarding depression, the average score was 6.73 ± 3.9 for UC, and 7.86 ± 4.62 for CD patients.(p = 0.29). Patients in the active phase had an average anxiety score of 11.11 ± 4.78, while those in remission of 7.56 ± 4.27(p = 0.002). Comparing anxiety scores of patients in remission, there were higher than those in the control group (mean=5.29 ± 3.62) (p = 0.027). Active phase IBD patients with depression had a mean score of 7.80 ± 4.27 compared with 5.81 ± 3.66 for those with IBD remission (p = 0.048).