Pediatric IBD and Depression: Treatment Implications

Abstract

Purpose of review

Depression in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is increasingly recognized to be a heterogeneous condition with diverse underlying predisposing and precipitating factors. Although there is a growing awareness regarding the benefits of integrating behavioral health into medical care, the way psychiatric treatments can best target different aspects of depression and related dysfunction has not been systematically explored.

Recent findings

This review discusses neurobiological risk factors for depression in IBD including inflammation, associated anti-inflammatory treatment with corticosteroids, pain, and sleep disturbance, as well as psychosocial factors including reactions to illness, illness perception, and disease and environmental stressors with emphasis of how these factors can influence treatment decisions. Empirically-supported psychosocial and psychopharmacological interventions are discussed within this context.

Summary

Understanding the diverse pathways that can lead to depression in youth with IBD can lead to the development of more targeted interventions and better integration of psychosocial care into the medical treatment of IBD.

Introduction

Youth with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have high rates of depression and a higher risk of developing depression in comparison to community controls and even those with other chronic diseases (i.e. cystic fibrosis, diabetes, chronic headache, or cancer. (1, 2)) Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), the most common subtypes, are lifelong debilitating conditions resulting from chronic and episodic worsening of gastrointestinal inflammation. Symptoms include abdominal pain, fever, fatigue, weight loss, diarrhea, and bloody stools.(3) With chronic disease activity, osteopenia, skin and joint disease, growth retardation and pubertal delay are possible physical manifestations. Psychosocial consequences can include social and academic challenges often related to the relapsing physical course. (4) Currently there is no overall cure for IBD, though colectomy can be curative for UC. Treatment includes immunosuppressive agents, biologics, and for refractory disease, surgery.(5)

The pediatric IBD population is of special clinical interest as approximately a quarter of patients with IBD are diagnosed before age 20 years with peak onset in adolescence.(6) This developmental period is one of particular psychiatric vulnerability; it represents a time of brain maturation and neuroplasticity as well as development of behavioral repertoires which may lend themselves to behavioral intervention.(7) This review will focus on neurobiological and psychological risk factors associated with depression in pediatric IBD and consideration of varying underlying etiologies to guide treatment options. The term youth will be used to encompass both children and adolescents.

Diagnosis of Depression

Diagnosis of major depression is based on criteria for a threshold number of depressive symptoms occurring for at least two weeks and associated marked functional impairment.(8) In patients with IBD, functional impairment includes adherence to medical treatment.(9) Depressive phenotypes of individual patients can be quite heterogeneous; however, distinct clusters of depressive symptoms have been identified.(10, 11) In patients with IBD, such depressive subtypes can have many different etiological underpinnings,(12) In a recent study, we conducted latent profile analysis to evaluate the relationship between systemic inflammation and depressive symptom profiles in 226 depressed youth with IBD.(13) Three distinct depressive profiles were identified: (1) youth with diverse milder depressive symptoms in the relative absence of systemic inflammation (75%); (2) youth with (13) high levels of somatic depressive symptoms in the presence of elevated inflammation (19%); and (3) youth with high levels of cognitive despair, including suicidal ideation, with relatively low inflammation (6%). These clusters of depressive symptoms may have unique etiological underpinnings including neurobiological effects of inflammation, gastrointestinal symptoms (e.g., abdominal pain), medication side effects and/or a psychological reaction to a new diagnosis, hospital admission, poor disease course, or other life stressor.(12)

Neurobiological factors

Neurobiological risk factors associated with depression in this population include IBD-related inflammation, abdominal pain, and sleep disturbance.(14, 15) The relationship between inflammation in pediatric IBD patients and depression is supported by growing evidence for a relationship between inflammation and depression in other pediatric samples.(16) In pediatric IBD, somatic depressive symptoms (e.g., fatigue, sleep disturbance) have most correlated with IBD activity.(13) From a phylogenetic survival perspective, these depressive symptoms may play a protective role during threat states such as severe acute IBD flares by shunting energy resources from the brain to the gastrointestinal tract to facilitate healing.(17) Thus, in some patients, rest and medical management of their IBD may sufficiently facilitate improvement in depressive symptoms. In adults with IBD, reduced IBD activity and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha after infliximab treatment for their IBD had the added benefit of improving depression.(18) In screening 765 youth (ages 9–27) with IBD for depression, those on anti-TNF agent infliximab were found to have less severe depression than those not on infliximab.(19) In contrast, a prediction model for depression demonstrated IBD activity and socioeconomic class, but not infliximab use, as significant predictors of depressive severity. These results suggest that youth with IBD and depression may benefit from more than just aggressive medical treatment, even during active disease.

Abdominal pain commonly co-occurs with depression as seen in pediatric studies. (20–23)It is often unrelated to the degree of IBD inflammation and termed “functional” abdominal pain. From a clinical perspective, depressive coping style is more predictive than medical variables for disease-related concerns (including reports of abdominal pain) providing insight into mechanisms of depression leading to abdominal pain.(24) Furthermore, psychological dysfunction is known to amplify symptom severity, particularly abdominal pain perception in adults with IBD and functional pain syndromes.(25–27) The direction of this relationship needs elucidation. If depression does indeed contribute to the development of abdominal pain, then treatment targeting depression may be first approach to managing pain. If depression results from chronic abdominal pain, it may be practical to target pain first.

Sleep disturbance is also highly correlated with depression both in the presence and absence of inflammation in both children and adults.(28, 29) Sleep disturbance includes difficulty falling asleep, disruption in sleep continuity, early morning awakenings, or hypersomnia in the absence of feeling refreshed. Poor sleep is linked to worsening mental and physical health, particularly immune dysregulation. In screening depressed youth with IBD for sleep disturbance using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), 42% met the threshold score for sleep disturbance. In depressed youth with CD, sleep disturbance was significantly greater than in healthy controls. A correlation between sleep disruption and disease severity was also noted, however, sleep disturbance was still present in those with inactive disease. In remission, depression was more related to sleep disturbance than in active disease, during which inflammatory biomarkers were more related. Anxiety and pain predicted subjective aspects of sleep disturbance. In adults, the PSQI was highly predictive of histological inflammatory activity,(30) suggesting that sleep disturbance is an early sign of inflammation and thus a possible indicator for IBD treatment. The difference in sleep disturbance among different IBD groups may suggest that treatment options can be targeted based on severity of disease.

Other often under-recognized neurobiological contributors to depressive symptoms are potential side effects from IBD pharmacotherapy. For example, corticosteroids have been linked to irritability, inattention and reduction in sleep time. (31–33) Youth with IBD treated with at least 20 mg per day prednisone equivalent for at least one week had greater depressive symptoms, attention and memory difficulties, and sleep disturbance than controls not on corticosteroids.(31) In longitudinal follow-up, mood and attentional symptoms improved with steroid taper however memory problems persisted.(34) These results are consistent with recent findings showing that adolescents with acute IBD had significantly higher incidence of mild verbal memory problems but not major cognitive deficits in comparison to adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis. The presence of mild verbal memory problems did not correlate with depressive symptoms.(35)

Psychosocial Factors

Reactive depressive symptoms are also important to consider as predisposing factors to depression due to IBD-related circumstances (e.g., new IBD diagnosis, ostomy persistence of pain) or life stress. These factors can occur in the presence or absence of active disease.(36) Descriptive studies examining the impact of IBD on everyday function of adolescents identified themes of discomfort from symptoms and treatment, diminished control over life and future, embarrassment, and perception of being different from healthy peers.(37–39)

In our person-centered analyses of depressive subtypes, 6% of depressed youth with IBD manifested hopelessness, suicidal ideation, and weeping.(13) This group had a greater number of ostomies and longest IBD duration, as well as pain in the relative absence of inflammation. Suicidal ideation has been understudied in pediatric IBD. In our depressed cohort, 22% of youth with IBD reported some degree of suicidality on the Children’s Depression Inventory (Szigethy, unpublished observations), with only small correlation with inflammatory biomarkers.

Growing evidence suggests a relationship between IBD health status, psychological outcomes (anxiety, depression) and illness perception and coping in adults with IBD.(40) Adult IBD patients with ostomies showed elevated depression and anxiety with illness perceptions partially mediating the relationship between health status and psychological symptoms.(41) In children with IBD, high rates of illness-related anxiety have been reported (42), and depressive severity was more significantly associated with negative illness perceptions than IBD activity in adolescents with IBD.(43) Finally, cognitive processes such as catastrophizing (negative prediction of the future) and rumination are common in depression and have also been implicated in worse pain perception thus also presenting an opportunity for intervention.(44, 45)

Treatment considerations

Neurobiological and psychosocial factors do not occur in isolation thus it is important to consider all sources of stress (external and internal) that could drive or maintain the depression in treatment-related decision-making (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Neurobiological and psychosocial factors that could lead to depression in youth with inflammatory bowel disease (original). Courtesy by C. Mrakotsky

Psychosocial Assessment

IBD is a psychosocially challenging disease and listening to patients’ illness narrative is important.(36) In addition to a thorough medical history, incorporating neurobiological and psychological factors in evaluating youth with IBD is critical. Whereas specific instruments to evaluate emotional distress in patients with IBD are available, not all are openly accessible.(32, 46) Health related quality of life (HRQoL) instruments are becoming more broadly available and correlate with emotional distress.(47, 48) Lower HRQoL was a good predictor of healthcare utilization in the IBD pediatric population; therefore, quality of life screening may be beneficial for efficient resource allocation by clinicians.(49) Evaluation of family factors such as relationships, caregiver stress, and social support can elucidate the role of environmental factors in maintaining depression.

Psychosocial interventions

Gastroenterology providers are first-line agents in identifying and treating depression by offering empathy and education to patients and their families. Encouraging participation in social activities in patients’ school and community settings, including IBD specific support groups and summer camps can provide respite.(36, 50) For more severe or persistent depressive symptoms, however, involvement of behaviorally trained mental health providers (e.g. social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists) is critical.

In most studies of adults with IBD, treatment with psychotherapy has been associated with improved depression and anxiety.(51, 52) In children and adolescents with IBD, treating subsyndromal depressive symptoms with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) correlated with significantly greater improvement of overall depressive severity as well as somatic symptoms compared to medical treatment as usual.(53, 54) CBT is a brief, interactive therapy modality based upon the assumption that emotions, behaviors and thoughts are interconnected thus targeting the latter two domains can improve mood. In a longitudinal study assessing the effects of CBT on pediatric IBD patients with a 12 month follow-up, there was significant improvement in self-reported depressive severity and global psychosocial functioning in youths randomized to CBT.(55) For these studies, the CBT model, originally for depression treatment (48), was made feasible for this physically ill population through several modifications: 1) Illness perceptions were identified and targeted by the intervention with an emphasis on improving a sense of control; 2) IBD-related maladaptive behaviors such as medical non-adherence were addressed; 3) Sessions with parents or caretakers were incorporated into individual child therapy sessions in developmentally appropriate ways; and 4) the intervention was accessible with phone sessions and/or face-to-face sessions coordinated with medical care.(56)

Recent findings of another randomized trial comparing cognitive behavioral therapy to supportive therapy for depression in youth (ages 9–17) with IBD showed that although both treatments were associated with improved depression over time, CBT was associated with greater reduction of IBD activity, suggesting that psychotherapy is a useful adjunct to medical management.(57) Similar CBT approaches have also been shown to improve pain and sleep disturbances in other pediatric populations.(58, 59) Additional promising psychosocial interventions for youth with IBD include hypnotherapy(60) and mindfulness-based techniques(61) which both can improve mood, pain and HRQoL.

While the field works toward the development of clinical guidelines for integrated psychosocial care in pediatric IBD, stress management and coping strategies, disease self-management training, and wellness/life style coaching (e.g., sleep hygiene, nutrition, exercise) may help prevent depression and increase resilience in all youth with IBD.(62, 63)

Role of pharmacotherapy

It is important to note that there have been no randomized controlled trials of any antidepressant for children and adolescents with IBD, thus use of these medications in this population is off-label and based on clinical opinion, reviews and case reports in adults.(64, 65) Further, long-term effects of these medications have also not been studied. Thus, particularly in pediatric patients, treating depression, pain and sleep disturbance using psychosocial interventions as first line and pharmacological treatment only if needed is recommended. In adults with IBD, the use of antidepressants has been associated with favorable effects such as reduced relapse rates, steroid use, and endoscopies. In pediatric IBD, serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) used concomitantly with psychotherapy have shown positive effects for depression and anxiety.(66) In adults with CD, bupropion, a dopaminergic/noradrenergic reuptake blocker and TNF-alpha inhibitor, has shown to improve depression and inflammation (67, 68) and has also been effective in patients with severe fatigue in other inflammatory diseases (39–42). Both SSRIs and bupropion are relatively well-tolerated in other pediatric cohorts with depression and medically ill adults (69–72) but placebo response can also be present. Many antidepressants have been linked to gastrointestinal side effects (e.g., nausea, pain, diarrhea, and risk of gastrointestinal bleeding) that need to be particularly monitored.(73, 74) For depression comorbid with abdominal pain, several non-opioid medications have shown positive effects, if behavioral interventions have failed.(14, 75) In particular, noradrenergic agents such as tricyclic antidepressants have been found to be effective for pain and other residual symptoms of IBD in adults, but findings are more mixed for children.(76, 77) As is the case for most psychotropic medications, there have been reports of associated increased suicidal ideation. Despite lack of a clear causal relationship, this serious symptom needs to be regularly monitored.(78, 79)

Finally, one often overlooked aspect of treating depression in the context of severe gastrointestinal inflammation or bowel resection is oral antidepressant absorption. Though not studied in pediatric IBD, therapeutic doses may need to be adjusted or use of psychotropic medications via dermal patch or intravenous administration considered.

Conclusions

Depression has been associated with a more challenging course of IBD as well as medical non-adherence and psychosocial dysfunction, making a diagnosis, treatment, and prevention primary objectives in comprehensive medical care for IBD in pediatric patients. While in some patients depressive symptoms improve with aggressive medical treatment of underlying IBD activity, for others with functionally impairing or persistent depression, concomitant behavioral interventions or symptom-specific medication may be indicated. It is important to note that not all youth with IBD become depressed, particularly during IBD remission.(2, 80) Future research needs to address management of diverse depressive phenotypes and underlying mechanisms as well as potential differences in depressive presentation in CD versus UC.(15) For example, the role of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis, autonomic nervous system dysfunction, genetic factors, early childhood adversity and their interactions as predisposing and precipitating factors for depression need to be better understood.(81, 82) Thus, although many areas are not yet explored, the current literature supports depression as a viable therapeutic target in pediatric IBD patients. Comprehensive evaluation of both neurobiological and psychosocial factors associated with depression will facilitate interventions to improve health-related quality of life.

Key points.

• Youth with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are at increased risk of depression compared to other pediatric populations.

• Depression in IBD patients can be associated with neurobiological factors (e.g. inflammation, abdominal pain, sleep disturbance) and psychological/psychosocial factors (e.g. reaction to illness, illness perception, disease and environmental stressors).

• Improvement in the IBD illness experience and quality of life may be possible through identification and targeted treatment of factors linked to depression.

• Pharmacotherapy towards depression is understudied in pediatric IBD and psychosocial interventions may be an effective and safer treatment option.