How IBD patients cope with IBD: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can have a significant impact on psychological wellbeing and quality of life. How one responds to and copes with IBD may be an important determinant of psychological wellbeing. We aimed to systematically review all published literature regarding coping strategies of IBD patients. METHODS Ovid and Pubmed databases were searched over 6 months. All articles about coping strategies of IBD patients were included. RESULTS Thirty-nine articles using twenty-two survey instruments were found, of which twenty-six were adult exclusive, eleven were children exclusive, and two had both adults and children. Two were interventional, four were longitudinal, and the rest were cross-sectional studies. Four studies were qualitative while the rest used quantitative measures. Variance in research designs and coping instruments led to inconsistent results. The most common theme was that emotion-focused coping was associated with worse psychological outcomes, while the effect of problem-focused coping was less consistently associated with better psychological outcomes. CONCLUSIONS More longitudinal and interventional studies are needed to causally link coping strategies with psychological outcomes in IBD patients.