Table 2.

Statements derived from international guidelines for IBD.

Topic	Criteria (Crohn’s disease)	Criteria (ulcerative colitis)
Overview	CD is a lifelong condition characterized by inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract	UC is a lifelong condition characterized by chronic inflammation of the colon
	CD has a relapsing and remitting course	UC has a relapsing and remitting course
	The causes of CD are unknown but are believed to be a mixture of genetic and environmental factors	The causes of UC are unknown but are believed to be a mixture of genetic and environmental factors
	The onset of CD is most common in the second and third decades of life	UC primarily presents in late adolescence and early adulthood
Diagnosis	CD is diagnosed by clinical evaluation and a combination of endoscopic, histological, radiological, and/or biochemical investigations	UC is diagnosed by clinical evaluation, proctosigmoidoscopy or endoscopy, biopsy, and negative stool examination for infective causes
	Chronic diarrhea is the most common presenting symptom of CD	Visible blood in the stools is the primary presenting symptom in UC
	Common symptoms of CD include chronic diarrhea, nocturnal diarrhea, abdominal pain, weight loss, fever, rectal bleeding	Common symptoms of UC include bloody diarrhea, rectal bleeding, and/or rectal urgency
Management goals	Goals of management in CD are the treatment of acute disease or induction of clinical remission, followed by maintenance of remission	Goals of treatment in UC are remission of symptoms, improved quality of life, reduction in long-term medication needs, and reduction of cancer risk
Treatment options	Initiation of therapy should be performed by a specialist gastroenterologist
	GPs are important in monitoring long-term treatment plan
	Therapy is divided into two categories: (1) acute therapy for flares to induce remission and (2) maintenance therapy in order to help maintain remission
	Treatment for IBD may include pharmacological therapy and surgical therapy
	Surgical therapy involves removal of a section of bowel, which may result in the patient living with a stoma for life
	Use of complementary and alternative medicine is generally safe, but efficacy is not validated