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Abstract

Background: The interaction between IBD and psychosocial health is poorly understood. The prevalence of depression in IBD is three times higher than in the general population. Objective: We assessed the prevalence of and risk factors for developing depression in a tertiary care outpatient setting. A secondary objective was to assess adherence to recommended depression screening. Methods: We collected data from patients seen in the outpatient IBD clinic at the MedStar Georgetown University Hospital (MGUH) from August 2017 to March 2018. All patients were supposed to be screened for depression with the patient health questionnaire (PHQ-2). A score of score ≥3 was consistent with depression and prompted the provided to complete a PHQ-9 questionnaire. Patients who were under the age of 18 years were excluded. Results: We included 201 (CD) patients and 169 (UC) patients who had PHQ-2 data available. Only 55% (370 of 676) of patients had a documented PHQ-2 score. The prevalence of depression in this study was 3% (11 of 370). There were no significant differences observed between CD and UC patients in regards to gender, age, disease duration, race, or presence of depression. Depression did not vary based on disease severity (p=0.13 for CD, p=0.62 for UC). Conclusions: The prevalence of depression in this cohort is less than in the general population (6.7%). The majority of patients had CD, smoke, have an ostomy, had IBDrelated surgery, and were in remission. Patients with depression should be identified early and referred for therapy, because left untreated, depression can lead to aggressive disease.