Stress coping strategies and depressive symptoms among ulcerative colitis patients

Abstract

This study investigated associations between the ways for coping with stress and the presence of depressive symptoms in a sample of 100 ulcerative colitis (UC) outpatients who are treated at the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinic at the School of Medicine of the University of São Paulo's Hospital das Clínicas, in the city of São Paulo. Patients were compared to a control group made up of 100 healthy subjects who kept company to other patients at another unit of the same hospital. To both groups were applied the Folkman and Lazarus's Coping Strategies Questionnaire and the Beck Depression Inventory. Coping strategies most referred to by patients were social support (47%) and positive reappraisal (40%); in the control group, the most reported coping strategy was positive reappraisal (52%). As to humor disorders, 71% of the UC patients were found to show no depressive symptoms (control group's: 78), 9% presented dysphoria (control group: 9%), and 20% showed depressive symptoms (control group: 13%).