Cited by 106Inflammatory Bowel DiseaseOcular Diseases and Behçet’s SyndromePsychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

The Role of Psychological Stress in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Quality Assessment of Methods of 18 Prospective Studies and Suggestions for Future Research

Open access
Cámara, Rafael J.A., Ziegler, Roger, Begré, Stefan, Schoepfer, Alain M., von Känel, Roland·2009·Digestion

Abstract

Background: Enquiries among patients on the one hand and experimental and observational studies on the other suggest an influence of stress on inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). However, since this influence remains hypothetical, further research is essential. We aimed to devise recommendations for future investigations in IBD by means of scrutinizing previously applied methodology. Methods: We critically reviewed prospective clinical studies on the effect of psychological stress on IBD. Eligible studies were searched by means of the PubMed electronic library and through checking the bibliographies of located sources. Results: We identified 20 publications resulting from 18 different studies. Sample sizes ranged between 10 and 155 participants. Study designs in terms of patient assessment, control variables, and applied psychometric instruments varied substantially across studies. Methodological strengths and weaknesses were irregularly dispersed. Thirteen studies reported significant relationships between stress and adverse outcomes. Conclusions: Study designs, including accuracy of outcome assessment and repeated sampling of outcomes (i.e. symptoms, clinical, and endoscopic), depended upon conditions like sample size, participants’ compliance, and available resources. Meeting additional criteria of sound methodology, like taking into account covariates of the disease and its course, is strongly recommended to possibly improve study designs in future IBD research.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1159/000226087

Cites

35 of 35 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Previous systematic reviews have found a significant association between stress and IBD disease activity in 13/18 studies.

    “Previous reviews have found a significant association between stress and IBD disease activity in 13/18 studies 17”

    From Systematic review: the role of psychological stress in inflammatory bowel disease (2022) · cites this paper as [17]

    The Comparison of the Study Results section reports significant associations between stress and IBD outcomes in 13 of 18 prospective studies. The Publications and Aims section shows that those outcomes included relapse, symptoms, treatment response, and inflammatory measures—not solely disease activity—so the claim describes the 13/18 finding too narrowly. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Previous reviews have raised concerns about heterogeneity in study design, participant samples and disease activity and stress measures that have made establishing the relationship between stress and disease activity difficult.

    “These reviews have raised concerns about heterogeneity in study design, participant samples and disease activity and stress measures that have made establishing the relationship between stress and disease activity difficult. 7 , 17 , 18”
  • References were searched from included studies and previous systematic reviews to ensure all relevant papers were included.

    “References were searched from included studies and previous systematic reviews 17 , 18 to ensure all relevant papers were included.”
  • A manual search of citations did not result in any additional inclusions.

    “A manual search of citations in previous systematic reviews 17 , 18 and included studies did not result in any additional inclusions.”
  • The review updated the findings of previous reviews including 21 more recent studies from the last decade.

    “Moreover, we were able to update the findings of previous reviews 17 , 18 including 21 more recent studies from the last decade.”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. 10.1001%2fjama.267.9.1244 · DOI · Paper page
  2. 10.1159%2f000098981 · DOI

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Cámara, R. J. A., Ziegler, R., Begré, S., Schoepfer, A. M., & von Känel, R.
Affiliations
  • University of Bern (CH)
  • McMaster University (CA)
Venue
Digestion
Publisher
S. Karger AG
Published
2009
Volume
80
Issue
2
Pages
129-139
ISSN
  • 0012-2823 (ISSN-L)
  • 1421-9867
OpenAlex
W2088360186
Cited by
106
References
35
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 8
FWCI
5.07
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Digestion (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • BORIS (University Library Bern) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Open Access CRIS of the University of Bern
Funders
  • National Science Foundation
  • Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (108792)
  • China Scholarship Council
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Inflammatory Bowel Disease
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Ophthalmology › Ocular Diseases and Behçet’s Syndrome
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
Keywords
psychological stress, inflammatory bowel disease, methodological quality, prospective study, psychometric scale, outcome measurement, sample size, covariates, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis
MeSH terms
Humans, Prospective Studies, Research Design, Stress, Psychological, Reproducibility of Results, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review