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Clinical Summary

Prednisone is linked to mood swings in patients with IBD

Takeaway

  • The corticosteroid prednisone is linked to a high rate of mood changes in patients being treated for flare-ups of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Why this matters

  • More research is needed to find ways to minimise these adverse events; in the meantime, healthcare providers should inform patients before starting corticosteroid therapy for IBD, and monitor them closely during treatment.

Study design

  • Researchers studied adult outpatients treated with prednisone for IBD flare-ups (N=53; mean age, 40±15 years; age range, 21-68 years; 49.1% women).
  • They assessed patient mood states with the Beck Depression Inventory II and the Activation subscale of Internal State Scale version 2, and monitored disease activity with the Harvey-Bradshaw Index and Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index.
  • Funding: Procter & Gamble-Canadian Association of Gastroenterology Resident Research Award.

Key results

  • The rate of patient mood changes after a median of 15 (range, 7-32) days of treatment was 49.1%.
  • All but 1 of these patients had increases in manic symptoms that returned to pretreatment levels after treatment was complete; 4 had concomitant depression.

Limitations

  • The study was single-centre with a small sample and no control group.
  • Researchers did not monitor patient adherence to corticosteroid therapy.

References


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