Computerised psychoeductional intervention for inflammatory bowel disease

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In this study, we will be randomizing 238 inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients to either an 8 session course of a computerised psychoeducational intervention or treatment as usual (TAU). The psychoeducation will cover a number of topics: goal setting; thoughts feelings and behaviours; avoiding avoidance; coping styles; diet; effective communication; pain management; and relapse prevention. Patients will be given up to 12 weeks to complete the 8 sessions; this is to allow for the effects of holidays, busy schedules, etc. to be nullified by people being given opportunities to “catch up”. We will be recruiting more patients into psychoeducation (n=126) than TAU (n=112) because we have been told by researchers who have done a similar study in Adelaide that we can expect more people to drop out of the computerised psychoeducation group. We will be measuring anxiety, depression, quality of life (QOL), coping styles, and IBD symptoms at baseline and obtaining demographic information (with patients’ consent) from the Concierto Patient Management System. We will also be measuring anxiety, depression, QOL, coping styles, and IBD symptoms post intervention in the psychoeducation group and at the 12-week equivalent in the TAU group. In addition, we will measure patient perceptions of the computerised psychoeducation program by asking such questions as whether they found the computerised psychoeducation relevant, valid, and effective. Perhaps our most important measure will come at 12 months post-intervention, when we will be asking patients about the abovementioned variables and also measuring whether direct medical costs have been reduced through less outpatient visits and hospitalizations in the psychoeducation group.

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