Crohns and Depression

scania1 · May 19, 2015

Hi all, I'm relatively new to this site and I don't often post to these groups but for the first time ever I feel I need to.

I'm 18 years old and suffer with Crohns. It's only a mild form of it but I still suffer terribly with the common symptoms of it. For the past few months Ive been feeling really shit in myself and I feel I have no one to talk to about this disease as no one understands what we go through to. I've become quite reserved in myself lately and I feel like I'm pushing people away from me because I feel no one understands what I'm going through. Is there a link between Crohns and some sort of depression or am I just imagining it all?

24601 · May 20, 2015

Hi! Welcome to the forum!

I think it's very understandable that many people with chronic illness also suffer with depression - after all it is depressing to be dealing with these symptoms and the effect it can have on your life, limiting opportunities for socializing, perhaps, or leaving you feeling too tired to cope with normal activities can easily cause or increase feelings of depression.

There are many people here on the forum who will relate to what you are feeling and I hope that visiting the forum and talking to people going through similar experiences will mean that you feel less isolated.

It isn't always easy talking to people who don't have Crohn's about the things we experience with it but here on the forum you need not worry about talking about any aspect of this disease. There will always be someone who has been through the same thing or something similar!

I am concerned that you are still having symptoms because the goal of treatment should be to get you into symptomatic remission (as well as having no signs of disease in your bloods or on imaging)

I think that your current treatment may need reviewing and that if you could get into proper remission and not be dealing with these symptoms that that will improve your quality of life and you will feel less depressed.

Would you like to share a bit more about your diagnosis experience and current treatments?

Also do check out the support forum here and perhaps in particular our active "how are you feeling today?" thread or the "mini-vents" thread if you have day to day frustrations you'd like to share

scania1 · May 20, 2015

I was diagnosed on my 16th birthday (great birthday present ha), but spent the next few months in and out of hospital and changing tablets until i finally settled on Humira, which I am now taking fortnightly for the past 20 months or so.
In the past couple of weeks I have experienced a nasty flare up that put me in hospital for a week. I'm now on predisnolone for the next six weeeks to try and reduce the flare. However the steroids are causing my joints to become quite sore so we'll see when i go back to my consultant on Friday and see what he says. Somehow i feel though that I will be going for a colonoscopy since my one last time out was a failure

24601 · May 21, 2015

So sorry to hear you got such a bad 16th birthday present!

Do you know which parts of your bowel are affected by Crohn's disease?

Has your doctor tested for antibodies to Humira which might mean you are no longer responding to the drug? And have they tested your levels of Humira? By doing that they can potentially optimize your dose or frequency to perhaps regain response. And if it's clear you are no longer responding then it can help make the decision to move to another biologic - and give them information about which one to choose.

Have you ever been on an immunosuppressant? Sometimes that's added in combination with a biologic and can help boost the effect of the drug.

If you'd like a paper to read on optimizing use of biologics then this one is helpful http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4416970/

What happened with your last colonoscopy?

scania1 · May 21, 2015

My last colonoscopy was March 14 months ago and the doctor failed to insert the needle correctly in my arm so when I was put under anaesthesia I wasn't properly knocked out but I felt everything and the doctor insisted on continuing but I forced him to stop because the pain was too much!

D Bergy · May 21, 2015

I started having depression in my teens. I did not identify it until I was in my early 30's. By then I decided I had coped with it that long and was not interested in taking drugs to try alleviate the symptoms.

I was diagnosed with Crohns in my mid 40's.
I started taking Ginger, Turmeric and Krill oil for inflammation. My depression went away as a result. I then quit taking all of these and it returned. Then I took one supplement at a time to determine if it was one or all of them that was helping. The Krill Oil helped by itself, the rest did not.

From that experiment I speculated it was either inflammation or an omega 3 imbalance that was the root cause of my depression. since then I lean toward the omega 3 imbalance because I have been badly flared since with no depression.

There are likely several causes of depression. This was just the cause of mine.

Dan

24601 · May 21, 2015

So sorry to hear that you had an unpleasant experience with your last scope. Is your disease all located in your colon? Otherwise other imaging like an MRI or pill cam can be very useful for monitoring disease and assessing your current situation.

I would mmost definitely talk to your consultant on Friday about tests for antibodies to Humira and to check your Humira levels to see if this med is still effective for you.

Also the possibility of adding an immunosuppressant.

Good luck! I certainly would hope that if you can get your symptoms under control and having less of an effect on your life that this might help your feelings of depression, but many on the forum have found some counselling to talk about their feelings about this illness to be helpful.

Tubes · May 21, 2015

scania1 said:
I was diagnosed on my 16th birthday (great birthday present ha), but spent the next few months in and out of hospital and changing tablets until i finally settled on Humira, which I am now taking fortnightly for the past 20 months or so.
In the past couple of weeks I have experienced a nasty flare up that put me in hospital for a week. I'm now on predisnolone for the next six weeeks to try and reduce the flare. However the steroids are causing my joints to become quite sore so we'll see when i go back to my consultant on Friday and see what he says. Somehow i feel though that I will be going for a colonoscopy since my one last time out was a failure

Wow you beat me..I was Diagnosed the day after my 12th birthday in 94 when I passed out in school.

scania1 · May 22, 2015

I'm going to see my consultant today so hopefully he can give me something to help me feel a bit better in myself anyway
Thanks for all the comments though, it's nice to talk to other people that feel similar to ya

DEmberton · May 22, 2015

D Bergy said:
I started having depression in my teens. I did not identify it until I was in my early 30's. By then I decided I had coped with it that long and was not interested in taking drugs to try alleviate the symptoms.

I was diagnosed with Crohns in my mid 40's.

Similar story here, but for me I'm pretty sure it was B12 deficiency that was causing my on off depression for years, and that certainly is quite likely with Crohns. It sounds stupid, but it really could be something that easy to treat.