Obsessive-compulsive Disorder, Depression and Anxiety Among Patients With Crohn's Disease

This is an observational case-control study conducted at Jordan University Hospital. Using hospital medical records, patients with Crohn's disease who had been treated and followed up at the gastro-enterology and colorectal clinics were contacted to obtain consent to participate in the research and to explain its goals and the nature of the questionnaires used. Patients who agreed to participate were sent an online questionnaire to fill in. Healthy Controls with no medical illness or mental illness were invited to fill in the same questionnaire. The controls were relatives of patients attending the hospital for clinics not related to the gastrointestinal tract or psychiatry. Patients and controls with documented psychiatric illnesses were excluded.

The following psychological assessment tools were used:

The Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R) for obsessive-compulsive symptoms. It is composed of an 18-item self-report validated questionnaire that measures symptoms across 6 subscales including washing, checking, neutralizing, obsessing, ordering, and hoarding. The possible range of scores is 0-72.

The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21) for overall emotional well-being. It is a set of three self-report scales to understand the degree of stress and distress, depressive and anxiety symptoms. The shortened version was used, which consists of 21 items and has been widely used for research and clinical purposes and is easy to administer.

The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), a nine-item depression scale of the patient health questionnaire, to assess depressive symptoms. The individual responses are interpreted as a score, with depression divided from no depression to severe depression.