How mindfulness is beneficial for IBD sufferers

Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are both types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). They are long-term conditions that cause patches of inflammation in the digestive tract leading to symptoms like diarrhoea, abdominal pain, cramping, tiredness, and weight loss. We often talk about the benefits of mindfulness in this news column and in a new study researchers from St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne wanted to see how mindfulness training would impact IBD.

According to the results mindfulness resulted in reductions in anxiety and depression as well as improvements in physical and psychological quality of life.

To do this they used a mindfulness based stress reduction program tailored specifically for people with IBD. They recruited people with IBD with an average age of 36 years who had IBD for an average of 11 years. Almost half of the subjects had active IBD at the time of the study.

The mindfulness program involved eight weekly group sessions plus an intensive day long session led by an experienced instructor. The sessions included guided meditations, exercises designed to enhance mindfulness in daily life, and group discussions of challenges and experiences. The subjects were also asked to do a daily mindfulness meditation at home.

Of those who began the mindfulness program 81 per cent finished it. For these people ratings of mental health, quality of life, and mindfulness were compared to the people who chose not to pursue the mindfulness program (mainly because of travel time).

According to the results mindfulness resulted in reductions in anxiety and depression as well as improvements in physical and psychological quality of life. Six months after the trial the improvements in depression and quality of life were still present and there was a trend to reduced anxiety.

The researchers say that mindfulness training could be a valuable and painless approach in dealing with IBD.