Department of Child Neuropsychiatry, Fondazione IRCCS San Gerardo dei Tintori, 20900 Monza, Italy.
School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy.
Nutrients. 2024 Aug 13;16(16):2675. doi: 10.3390/nu16162675.
Individuals with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) have an increased risk of developing psychiatric comorbidities, including eating disorders (EDs). We aimed to investigate the potential association between key disease characteristics, including psychological features, and the development of EDs in a clinical sample of adolescents with IBDs. We enrolled 52 adolescents with IBDs, 83% of whom were in clinical remission, and systematically collected additional information on disease duration, the total number of relapses, the use of steroids, and the number of hospital admissions. All participants completed a validated psychometric battery assessing psychological symptoms (Symptom Checklist-90-Revised, SCL-90-R), alexithymia (Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, TAS-20), and ED symptomatology (Eating Disorders Inventory-3rd edition, EDI-3). About one in ten patients (9.6%) reported Eating Disorder Risk scores higher than the cut-off on the EDI-3 subscale, specifically addressing the risk of developing EDs. According to the EDI-3 scores, the risk of developing EDs directly correlated with the number of total relapses of IBDs ( < 0.05). The TAS-total scores also correlated with the number of total relapses ( < 0.01), as well as with the number of steroid cycles ( < 0.05), the number of hospital admissions ( < 0.05), and overall disease duration ( < 0.05). Our findings suggest that disease relapses increase the risk of developing both EDs and alexithymia in adolescents with IBDs. The recurrence of disease relapses should be identified and screened early on to prevent the onset of psychiatric disorders, including EDs. Research should be conducted on larger samples with different IBD phenotypes to further investigate the characteristics of patients with IBDs at risk of developing EDs.
患有炎症性肠病（IBD）的个体患精神共病的风险增加，包括饮食障碍（ED）。我们旨在研究临床样本中青少年 IBD 患者的关键疾病特征（包括心理特征）与 ED 发展之间的潜在关联。我们纳入了 52 名患有 IBD 的青少年，其中 83%处于临床缓解期，系统地收集了疾病持续时间、复发总数、使用类固醇和住院次数等额外信息。所有参与者都完成了一套有效的心理测量工具包，评估心理症状（症状清单-90 修订版，SCL-90-R）、述情障碍（多伦多述情障碍量表-20 版，TAS-20）和 ED 症状学（饮食障碍问卷-3 版，EDI-3）。大约十分之一的患者（9.6%）报告 EDI-3 亚量表的 Eating Disorder Risk 评分高于临界值，专门针对 ED 发病风险。根据 EDI-3 评分，IBD 总复发次数与 ED 发病风险直接相关（<0.05）。TAS 总分也与总复发次数相关（<0.01），与类固醇周期数（<0.05）、住院次数（<0.05）和总疾病持续时间相关（<0.05）。我们的研究结果表明，疾病复发会增加青少年 IBD 患者发生 ED 和述情障碍的风险。应及早识别和筛查疾病复发，以预防包括 ED 在内的精神障碍的发生。应在具有不同 IBD 表型的更大样本中开展研究，以进一步研究有发生 ED 风险的 IBD 患者的特征。
