New psychological intervention program shows promise in helping those with bowel diseases

New psychological intervention program shows promise in helping those with bowel diseases — Science Blog

Teenagers with IBD, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, often have serious trouble coping with the disorders. But a new cognitive-behavioral, skills-based treatment intervention program developed and tested by psychologists at the University of Georgia shows promise of reducing physical symptoms and increasing adaptive coping strategies. It could help bring some relief to the hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. alone who often suffer in silence.

The latest study on the effectiveness of the coping skills intervention involved 24 female teenagers age 11-17 — a population that especially struggles with the intimate and sometimes embarrassing nature of IBD.

“We saw significant improvements in these adolescents’ physical symptoms and coping strategies following treatment,” said Ronald Blount, professor of clinical psychology at UGA and an author of the study. “Parents, who were also involved in the study, reported reductions in catastrophic thoughts related to their daughters’ pain and improved behavioral reactions related to their daughters’ physical symptoms. We aimed to teach parents to become coaches for their daughters to help them better manage their symptoms.”

The research was just published online in the journal Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. Co-authors were Megan McCormick and Bonney Reed-Knight, both psychology doctoral students at UGA, and Drs. Jeffrey Lewis and Benjamin Gold of the Children’s Center for Digestive Health Care in Atlanta. The department of psychology at UGA is part of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

IBD is unpredictable and can cause severe suffering for those diagnosed with the disease. With symptoms such as abdominal pain, frequent diarrhea, delayed growth and intestinal or rectal bleeding, the disorders are a challenge for teens and parents alike. Sometimes just as difficult, IBD is associated with such things as elevated stress levels and poor emotional functioning.

Those directing the study divided the 24 adolescent girls and their parents involved in the study into two groups for the one-day intervention. One group began training in the new protocols immediately, while the second was “wait-listed” as a control group, though all eventually received the training.

While the on-site training lasted but a day, it was followed by six weeks of a web-based coping skills program, including weekly homework assignments and group chat sessions aimed at reinforcing the skills learned in the one-day intervention.