Perceived distress, personality characteristics, coping strategies and psychosocial impairments in a national German multicenter cohort of patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

Background And Aims:  This study examined differences in personality, psychological distress, and stress coping in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) depending on type of disease and disease activity. We compared patients suffering from Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) with controls. While the literature is replete with distinctive features of the pathogenesis of IBD, the specific differences in psychological impairments are not well studied.