We would like to thank Dr. Pommer for his comments on our article (1), in which we in fact could not discuss either important psychosomatic aspects of chronic inflammatory bowel disease or other complementary methods, due to space limitations. Regarding these issues, we would like to refer to a detailed chapter in a recently published book (2).
Despite the mentioned correlations, a primary pathogenic role for psychological factors has not been proven, although previously suspected.
Undoubtedly, these diseases often present serious limitations to the patients’ quality of life, and psychological intervention for coping with this situation is very helpful for many patients. Therefore, psychotherapeutic interdisciplinary co-treatment in these cases undeniably makes sense, and it is both recommended and practiced by us.
Footnotes
Conflict of interest statement
Prof. Wehkamp has served as a paid consultant for MSD, Takeda, Novartis, Shire, Abbvie, and Ardeypharm. He has received reimbursement of meeting participation fees and of travel and accommodation expenses from Takeda. He has received payment for lecturing at continuing medical education events from the Falk Foundation, Abbvie, Takeda, MSD, Roche, Ferring, and Shire. He has received third-party research funding for carrying out clinical trials on behalf of Amgen, Novartis, Falk Pharma, and Abbvie. He is a member of the board of Defensin Therapeutics.
Prof. Götz has served as a paid consultant for MSD, Takeda, and Pentax. He has received reimbursement of meeting participation fees and of travel and accommodation expenses from Takeda, MSD, and Abbvie. He has received lecture honoraria from Takeda, MSD, Abbvie, and the Falk Foundation. He has received funding from Pentax for a research project that he initiated.
Prof. Herrlinger has served as a paid consultant for MSD and Takeda. He has received payment from Falk Pharma, Medac, and Abbvie for preparing continuing medical education events.
Prof. Stange has served as a paid consultant for Merck, Takeda, and Janssen. He has received reimbursement of travel and accommodation expenses, as well as lecture honoraria, from Abbvie, Falk, Ferring, and Takeda. He has received third-party research funding for carrying out clinical trials on behalf of Abbvie, Falk, Takeda, Celgene, Gilead, Amgen, Boehringer, Salix, and Pfizer.
Prof. Steurer declares that no conflict of interest exists.
References
- 1.Wehkamp J, Götz M, Herrlinger K, Steurer W, Stange EF. Inflammatory bowel disease: Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2016;113:72–82. doi: 10.3238/arztebl.2016.0072. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Stange EF. Stuttgart: Schattauer Verlag; 2015. Entzündliche Darmerkrankungen. [Google Scholar]