Between August 1985 and June 1987, sixty patient with chronic inflammatory bowel disease (31 with Chron’s disease, 29 with ulcerative colitis) were included in a study at Herdecke Community Hospital (Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus) in Germany. The aim was to look for additional criteria for differentiation between ulcerative colitis and Chron’s disease patients as regards psychology, biography and follow-up. The study included all patients admitted to the 32-bed gastroenterology department of the hospital during the above period on account of an acute episode of inflammatory bowel disease. Patients admitted with other diagnoses, who in the course of their stay were found to have inflammatory bowel disease aas well, were not included, nor were patients who came in for a check-up but were not in an acute phase. An interview based on a semi-standardized questionnaire served to establish every patient’s biography and medical history. Progress was recorded, with the patients asked to fill in stools records daily and a general condition record twice a week; the later was also presented to the physician in charge of the patient, though in a slightly different form.

Klaus Fischer

Original title: Colitis ulcerosa- und Morbus Crohn-Patienten in psychischer und biographischer Hinsicht - eine Studie, Teil I .
Der Merkurstab 1989;42(4):189-203.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14271/DMS-15441-DE
English by Anna R. Meuss, FIL, MITI.
This translation is published with the kind permission of the journal Der Merkurstab.

JAM Vol. 9(3), Autumn 1992