Lay Summary

Proposal No. IBD-0217
Principal Investigator:  Henrik Toft Sørensen, Ph.D., Dr.Med.Sc.
Applicant Organization:  Aarhus University (Denmark)
Project Title:  The association between inflammatory bowel disease and completed suicide in the adult population of Denmark
Period of Award:  January 1, 2008 – February 28, 2009

This application proposes a study of the association between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and suicide.  Additionally, the proposed study aims to explore depression, anxiety, psychosis and suicide attempts among people with IBD.  Studies have shown that depression, anxiety, psychosis and suicide attempts or mortality may be additional problems people with IBD encounter.  However, research studies in this area are limited and many clinicians who treat IBD do not integrate screening for mental illness or suicidal behavior in their clinical care.  Using data contained in the Danish health care registries from 1981–2001, we will conduct three main analyses.  The first will compare the percentage of people diagnosed with depression, anxiety, psychosis or attempted suicide among people who commit suicide and were diagnosed with either ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn’s disease (CD) to the percentage of people diagnosed with depression, anxiety, psychosis or attempted suicide among people with UC or CD who did not commit suicide.  The second analysis will assess the association between being diagnosed with UC and committing suicide and the final analysis will assess the association between being diagnosed with CD and committing suicide.  This study is innovative because both IBD and suicide are relatively rare, and no studies have been large enough to assess their association.  Additionally, this study could help clinicians understand the importance of screening for depression, anxiety, psychosis and suicidal behavior among people who have been diagnosed with IBD and thereby improve treatment for these people.