Evaluation of the Correlation between Anxiety, Depression and Personality Traits with Immunologic Markers (ANCAs) in Ulcerative Colitis

Abstract

Background :

Many studies have investigated the effects of psychological factors on disease activity in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). However, the number of studies that have assessed the correlation between immunologic markers of UC and psychological distress are few. Therefore, we designed a study to determine the association between two immuno-biological markers, peripheral/central anti-neutrophilic cytoplasmic antibodies (c-ANCA and p-ANCA), and depressive symptoms, healthy anxiety and personality traits.

Materials and Methods:

A total of 108 patients with UC entered the study. p-ANCA and c-ANCA were determined by enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and reconfirmed by indirect immunofluorescence. Severity of UC was classified based on Truelove criteria. Depressive symptoms were measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) Scale, anxiety symptoms by the Hospital Anxiety Depression (HAD) Scale and personality traits were assessed by the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Pearson correlation was used to assess the relationship between p-ANCA/c-ANCA and psychological distress.

Results :

Our results showed that 81.5% of the patients suffered from anxiety, 43.5% suffered from depression and 75% suffered from introvert personality. No patient was positive for p-ANCA. There were 16 patients (14.8%) who tested positive for c-ANCA; 85.2% were negative for c-ANCA. Anxiety was significantly higher in the c-ANCA negative patients.

Conclusion :

According to our results, only testing negative for c-ANCA correlated with anxiety. However, the high prevalence of anxiety, depression and introversion and their roles in the clinical course and outcomes of the UC shows the need for early psychological intervention in those patients.