Quiescent ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease have potential effect on cognitive function

Background Ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD) imply chronic intestinal inflammation with both local and systemic manifestations. Cognition is a lifelong process of learning and memory processing, which has been identified to be affected by chronic systemic illnesses. Aim To evaluate the cognitive functions in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients in remission Patients and methods Inclusion criteria are as follows: 70 IBD patients in remission and a group of 50 healthy control. Mini-mental state examination (MMSE) was used for assessment of global cognitive function and Trail Making Test (TMT) for assessment of executive functions. TMT consists of part A which measures attention and performance speed and part B which measures mental flexibility. Both tests have been previously validated on Arabic-speaking populations. Results The study included 70 patients (50 UC and 20 CD), who have been in remission for 21 ± 9 months. Of the included cases, about 51 were already on steroids ± azathioprine, and 19 patients were on biologics. Males represented 60% ( n = 42) while females 40% ( n = 28), and their mean age was 34 ± 8 years. Both cases and controls were matched for age and sex. The mean score of MMSE among IBD cases was significantly worse than controls (28.5 ± 3 versus 30, P < 0.001). Also, the duration of TMT parts A and B was significantly longer in cases than controls. The cases group scored 32 ± 19.5 s in TMT part A, versus 23 s by the controls. In TMT B, the recorded scores were 255 ± 48, versus 234 s in cases and control groups respectively ( P < 0.001). In the cases group, 6 patients (8%) had below normal MMSE score of less than 24, with mild (3 patients, mean score was 21) to moderate cognitive impairment (3 patients, mean score was 15). The presence of extraintestinal manifestation was the only disease-related factor that was associated with cognitive impairment. Of the patient-related factor: older age, being divorced, and living in rural areas were associated with poorer cognitive functions. Conclusion IBD patients potentially suffer from cognitive impairment. In our study, factors as extraintestinal complications, older age, marital status, and residence in rural areas could be contributing factors to this impairment.