Living with ulcerative colitis in Iran: Discovery of psychological problems

Abstract

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is one of the chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) with unknown etiology.[1] Living with any chronic health condition can challenge person’s daily functioning and his/her emotional and psychological well‑being. This challenge may be increased in IBD, because course and symptoms of the disease fluctuate unpredictably from an active to inactive periods.[2] It sounds that psychological factors and disease activity are concomitant in a self‑perpetuating cycle with devastating effects for IBD patients.[3] However, the UC patients’ common experiences in the domain of the psychological factors have not been investigated,