Quality of Life in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Is Associated with Affective Temperament Traits: A Cross-Sectional Survey of a Polish Clinical Sample

TL;DR

This study shows that emotional traits like anxiety and irritability are linked to lower quality of life in inflammatory bowel disease patients, even when their physical symptoms are under control.

Contribution

The study is the first to demonstrate a link between affective temperament traits and HRQoL in IBD patients in remission.

Findings

Poor HRQoL in IBD patients correlates with depressive, cyclothymic, irritable, and anxious temperaments.

Hyperthymic temperament did not correlate with HRQoL in IBD patients.

Quality of life remained low in IBD patients despite being in clinical remission.

Abstract

Background: Affective temperaments can be considered the subclinical manifestations of affective and stress-related disorders, which could have a relationship with many chronic diseases. The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of affective temperament traits on disease-specific quality of life in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD), two types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Methods: The patients completed the Temperament Evaluation of the Memphis, Pisa, Paris, San Diego-Auto-questionnaire (TEMPS-A), which is the 110-item self-reported assessment for five dimensions of temperament: depressive, cyclothymic, hyperthymic, irritable, and anxious, already validated in Poland. For comprehensive assessment of the health-related quality of life (HRQoL), the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ) was applied. Results: The study included 116 patients with IBD-61 with UC and 55 with CD, with mean age 43 years, in remission, without serious mental or medical co-morbidities. Mean HRQoL in patients with IBD was poor and mean IBDQ scores were 145, despite clinical remission. A significant negative correlation was found between HRQoL in all the IBDQ domains and TEMPS-A traits: D (p < 0.001), C (p < 0.01), I (p < 0.05), and A (p < 0.001). No significant correlation between hyperthymic temperament and IBDQ scores was found. Conclusions: Poor quality of life in IBD could be associated with affective temperament. Affective temperament traits should be taken into account when identifying patients at risk of worse IBD course and further introducing personalized therapy.