People with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) showed interest towards freely available, virtually delivered Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program but the inclination to enroll in this virtual stress management resource was found too low mainly because of time constraints, as per a study published in “Journal of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology”.

IBD patients commonly present with  anxiety and depression. Only a handful of patients get psychiatric help and therapies despite the high rates of mental health comorbidity. Many high-quality trials have shown that online MBSR by psychiatrists has been linked with a reduction in  feelings of stress, anxiety and depression. It also helps to mitigate the hurdles to accessing mental health treatment- price and travel requirements for patients.

This research study by K Chappell and colleagues evaluated the practicability of virtual MBSR for IBD patients. Participants (aged 18-65 years) who were identified as being anxious or depressed and/or were referred to by their gastroenterologist were considered. The eligible patients who were interested in taking part were contacted by the study researcher. This was done after finishing an evaluation of symptoms and a semi-structured interview with a psychiatrist.

Details of the virtual MBSR program are as under:

• 8-week group-based intervention which gave tools to manage stress
• 8 weekly sittings of 2.5 hours per week
• One-time weekend sitting of 5 hours
• Practice for 45-60 minutes every night
• Attendance of a minimum of 6 out of 8 weekly and weekend sittings marked the completion of the program

The MBSR sessions were done in the evening via Zoom headed by a team of experienced psychiatrists for both groups. Overall, 16 (25%) patients (median age = 36 years, 62.5% females and 50% had Crohn’s disease) agreed to participate out of 64 patients  referred to the study. The top reason to drop was being 'too busy or not having enough time' in 21 patients (80.3% of patients) followed by 3 patients stating that they don’t need any help.

From the first group of 7 participants, the attendance, adherence, and attrition data were noted down. Just 3 (42.8%) completed the program well, who had a 100% attendance rate and practiced 6 nights per week for an average of 25 minutes per night. Presently, the second group with 9 members is continuing.

Follow-up discussions with those who registered and were not registered in this virtual stress management resource are ongoing to emphasize the advantages and obstacles to stress management based on mindfulness.