Living with gut problems like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis can be difficult, both physically and emotionally.
These conditions are part of a group called inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), which can cause pain, diarrhea, and other symptoms that make daily life harder. But a new study shows that therapy—not just medicine—can help ease the burden of these illnesses.
Researchers Melissa Hunt, a psychologist, and Chung Sang Tse, a gastroenterologist, worked together with other experts to explore how cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can improve the lives of people with IBD.
CBT is a type of therapy that helps people change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. It’s already used for many mental health issues, but this team wanted to see how well it could work for people with chronic gut problems.
Their study was done at the University of Pennsylvania and was published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology.
They found that people with IBD who took part in an eight-week CBT program, delivered through video sessions (teletherapy), showed big improvements in their daily life. They were able to do more things like work, go to school, or enjoy hobbies with fewer interruptions from their illness.
What’s even more exciting is that the psychologists who delivered the therapy didn’t need special training in digestive diseases before starting. Melissa Hunt trained five psychologists using a guide she wrote herself.
The guide includes a basic overview of IBD, common mental health struggles that go along with it, treatment methods, and case examples. These therapists then worked with patients in cities and rural areas across five different states.
One therapy method they used was called exposure therapy. For example, patients were encouraged to go into stores without public restrooms and ask to use the bathroom in case of emergency. This helped them gain confidence and feel less anxious about being in public spaces.
The researchers also studied whether therapists who followed the training closely were more effective. They found that those who taught deep breathing techniques saw better results.
Deep diaphragmatic breathing, a method that slows the breath and calms the nervous system, can help reduce stomach pain and the sudden urge to go to the bathroom. Hunt says this kind of breathing not only calms the body but also helps people feel more in control.
The success of this program has inspired Hunt to expand the idea. Starting in January, a new training rotation for psychology students will begin at Penn Medicine. These future therapists will learn how to help people with both IBD and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Unlike IBD, which causes physical inflammation, IBS is mostly a problem with how the brain and gut communicate. It often doesn’t respond well to standard medical treatments.
That’s why Hunt believes therapy should be the first choice for most people with IBS. She hopes that by using therapy more often, doctors can focus their time on IBD patients who truly need medication or surgery.
This new approach could also reduce the number of medical visits and give people with gut disorders more control over their lives.
The research by Hunt and Tse shows that with the right support, people with chronic gut issues don’t have to suffer in silence. Psychotherapy can make a real difference, even for illnesses that are often seen as purely physical.
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