Fatigue is a prevalent symptom among patients with both active and inactive inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and it is strongly linked to depression, as reported in BMC Gastroenterology. Victoria Uhlir and her team from Jena University Hospital conducted a study involving 189 patients with IBD, revealing that 51.3% of patients were fatigued, and 12.2% were extremely fatigued.
The symptom was more common among women and those with moderate to severe disease activity. The study also found a strong correlation between fatigue and depression, with 43.5% of the extremely fatigued group having severe or very severe depression. The researchers emphasized the importance of addressing potential underlying subclinical depression in patients reporting fatigue symptoms.