"A gift wrapped in barbed wire" positive and negative life changes after being diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease.

Purpose: A growing interest in posttraumatic growth among individuals who have experienced a traumatic event has given rise to measures such as the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI; Tedeschi and Calhoun, 1996). However, such measures may not fully represent all dimensions of change among individuals diagnosed with a chronic disease and fail to highlight the negative changes that may also occur. This study explores the positive and negative changes patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have experienced since diagnosis.