Abstract
Limited evidence exists regarding cognitive and psychomotor function in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Therefore, we aimed to compare the neurocognitive and psychomotor function of 60 IBD patients with 60 age/sex-matched controls. Computer-based instrument Complex Reactinometer Drenovac (CRD) was used for assessment of cognitive domains: convergent thinking (simple mathematical tasks; CRD-11), perceptive abilities (light signal position discrimination; CRD-311) and sophisticated operative thinking (complex psychomotor coordination; CRD-411). The most important analyzed parameters were total test solving time (TTTS); minimal time of particular test solving (TMIN) and total number of wrong reactions (NER). Performance in all three cognitive tests showed statistically significantly longer TTTS and TMIN in IBD patients (P < 0.05), while there was no significant difference in NER. Aforementioned findings were adjusted for BMI, age and duration of education. Our study has shown impaired neurocognitive and psychomotor function in IBD patients compared to controls, especially in mental processing speed and mental endurance of perceptive abilities, convergent thinking and complex operative thinking.
Highlights
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an idiopathic chronic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal system with serious acute and chronic complications[1]
According to the international clinical scores, both subgroups of patients were in clinical remission from the mild form of disease (Crohn’s disease: Crohn’s disease activity index (CDAI) – remission; Harvey-Bradshaw index (HBI) – remission; Ulcerative colitis: Mayo/DAI – mild activity), while endoscopic scoring systems displayed disease of moderate activity (Crohn’s disease: simple endoscopic score for Crohn’s disease (SES-CD) – moderate activity; Ulcerative colitis: ulcerative colitis endoscopic index of severity (UCEIS) – moderate activity; Mayo endoscopic score (MES) – moderate activity)
Patients with CD had more extraintestinal manifestations and surgical treatments (62.86%, N = 22 vs. 24.00%, N = 6, P = 0.003 and 34.28%, N = 12 vs. 4.00%, N = 1, P = 0.047, respectively), while there was no difference in disease duration, disease activity and laboratory parameters (Table 2)
Summary
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an idiopathic chronic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal system with serious acute and chronic complications[1]. The impact of the nervous system on the pathophysiology of IBD is one of the least studied factors[5]. Previous studies have proposed that patients with IBD exhibit harmful neuropsychological repercussions, the exact pathophysiological mechanisms are not fully clarified[4,5,6]. The importance of gut-brain-microbiome interaction has recently been emphasized, providing new insights into IBD pathophysiology and therapeutic options[5]. It is well-known that IBD represents a general proinflammatory state with major cytokine disbalance, which has numerous neurological consequences[1]. Patients with IBD are often malnourished, which can possibly impair cognitive and www.nature.com/scientificreports/. Scarcely available evidence suggests deteriorations in specific domains and sub-domains of cognitive function, which could interfere with the daily functioning of IBD patients[13,15,16,17]
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