Differentiating Childhood Traumas in Inflammatory Bowel Disease
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Published on: September 22, 2019
Lauren Gnat1, Valentina Mihajlovic1, Krista Jones1
1Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Insights
Childhood trauma, including sexual abuse and violence, is more prevalent in inflammatory bowel disease patients. Trauma severity is linked to depressive symptoms via resilience, but confiding in others did not alter this connection.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Gastroenterology
- Trauma Studies
Background:
- Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) involves chronic gastrointestinal inflammation.
- IBD has been linked to childhood traumatic experiences.
- Specific trauma types and the role of social support in IBD outcomes require further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the prevalence and severity of childhood traumas between IBD patients and healthy controls.
- To examine the relationship between childhood trauma, resilience, confiding in others, and depressive symptoms in IBD.
- To investigate whether confiding in others moderates the link between childhood trauma severity and depressive symptoms.
Main Methods:
- A comparative, cross-sectional online survey study.
- 195 IBD patients and 190 healthy controls completed self-report questionnaires.
- Statistical analyses compared trauma prevalence, severity, confiding in others, resilience, and depressive symptoms between groups.
Main Results:
- IBD patients reported higher rates of sexual trauma, major upheavals, and violence compared to controls.
- Patients exhibited significantly higher total trauma severity and lower confiding in others.
- Childhood trauma severity indirectly predicted depressive symptoms through resilience (b = .05, SE = 0.09, 95% CI[0.01,0.09]).
Conclusions:
- IBD patients experience a higher burden of specific childhood traumas.
- Resilience mediates the relationship between childhood trauma severity and depressive symptoms.
- Confiding in others did not moderate the trauma-depressive symptom link in this IBD cohort.
Background:
Inflammatory bowel disease is characterized by chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Research on inflammatory bowel disease has shown a connection to childhood traumatic events. However, few studies have focused on specific types of traumatic experiences and the impact of confiding in others on disease-related outcomes. This comparative, cross-sectional study expected that: (1) patients would report higher prevalence rates of childhood traumas than healthy controls; (2) healthy controls would report fewer and less severe traumatic experiences than patients and less confiding in others compared to patients; (3) childhood trauma severity would be indirectly related to depressive symptoms through resilience and confiding in others would moderate this relationship.
Methods:
Participants completed an online survey; an inflammatory bowel disease patient group (N = 195, Mage = 40.48, 76.4% female) was compared to a similarly recruited sample of healthy controls (N = 190, Mage = 31.16, 59.5% female).
Results:
Patients reported a higher prevalence of experiencing sexual traumas (P = .031), major upheavals (i.e., disruptions) (P = .048), and violence (P = .050) than controls. Patients had significantly higher total trauma severity odds ratios (OR 0.89, 95% CI[0.81,0.97]) and significantly lower total confiding in other odds ratios than controls (OR 1.09, 95% CI[1.02,1.16]). Childhood trauma severity was indirectly related to depressive symptoms through resilience, b = .05, SE = 0.09, 95% CI[0.01,0.09]; however, confiding did not moderate this relationship.
Conclusions:
Patients reported more sexual, disruptive, and violent traumas. Although confiding did not act as a moderator, trauma was related to depressive symptoms through resilience.
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