Causal Association between Anxiety and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

Abstract

For the past few years, the prevalence rate of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been continuously increasing. The situation becomes an important factor affecting individual and social development. Based on the traditional Chinese medicine model of “Earth deficiency leading to wood shaking”, the paper utilizes the method of literature research to systematically demonstrate the bidirectional causal relationship between anxiety and IBD. The core conclusion reveals that anxiety is not only a common comorbidity of IBD but also an independent risk factor for its incidence. On the contrary, the disease burden of IBD directly leads to the occurrence and exacerbation of anxiety. This bidirectional relationship is mainly mediated through the “brain-gut axis” mechanism, including the activation of the HPA axis, dysbiosis of the gut microbiota, and abnormalities in neuroimmune regulation. Based on this, the study presents a bidirectional and comprehensive intervention strategy, emphasizing the need to pay attention to both the physical and mental health of patients in clinical practice. Furthermore, to accomplish better prevention and treatment outcomes, clinical practice use integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine treatment, psychological intervention, and multidisciplinary collaboration.