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Sample Conversation Starters to Use With Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

Explaining the Link Between IBD and Depression

We do not fully understand the relationship between IBD and depression, but we know that depression affects between 20% and 30% of individuals with IBD and that the rate of depression may be even higher when disease is active. Experts in this area suspect that the reason that depression and IBD are so intertwined has something to do with both depression and IBD sharing several biologic and inflammatory pathways. Another common reason people with IBD become depressed is that they have to stop doing activities they used to enjoy or were good at because of their illness. For most of my patients, it is a combination of these factors that leads them to feel depressed or have a low mood. Do you feel that any of these things apply to you and your IBD right now?

Encouraging Patient Referral

You have been going through so much recently with your health, and part of my job is to make sure that you are emotionally managing everything. So many of my patients like you become fatigued, depressed, and down as a result of their IBD and can sometimes benefit from short-term counseling or even medication to figure out how they can move forward in light of everything that has happened. Would you like me to make a referral to see someone in our center who specializes in this?