Therapy, Drugs, and Therapy on Drugs - Pre-treatment expectations and

Journal article

Lukas A. Basedow, Simon F. Zerth, Stefan Salzmann, Christine Uecker, Nina Bauer, Sigrid Elsenbruch, Winfried Rief, Jost Langhorst
Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 2023, p. 111567

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2023.111567

Cite

APA Click to copy
Basedow, L. A., Zerth, S. F., Salzmann, S., Uecker, C., Bauer, N., Elsenbruch, S., … Langhorst, J. (2023). Pre-treatment expectations and their influence on subjective symptom change in Crohn's disease. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 111567. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2023.111567

Chicago/Turabian Click to copy
Basedow, Lukas A., Simon F. Zerth, Stefan Salzmann, Christine Uecker, Nina Bauer, Sigrid Elsenbruch, Winfried Rief, and Jost Langhorst. “Pre-Treatment Expectations and Their Influence on Subjective Symptom Change in Crohn's Disease.” Journal of Psychosomatic Research (2023): 111567.

MLA Click to copy
Basedow, Lukas A., et al. “Pre-Treatment Expectations and Their Influence on Subjective Symptom Change in Crohn's Disease.” Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 2023, p. 111567, doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2023.111567.

BibTeX Click to copy

@article{basedow2023a,
  title = {Pre-treatment expectations and their influence on subjective symptom change in Crohn's disease},
  year = {2023},
  journal = {Journal of Psychosomatic Research},
  pages = {111567},
  doi = {10.1016/j.jpsychores.2023.111567},
  author = {Basedow, Lukas A. and Zerth, Simon F. and Salzmann, Stefan and Uecker, Christine and Bauer, Nina and Elsenbruch, Sigrid and Rief, Winfried and Langhorst, Jost}
}

ABSTRACT
Background
Treatment expectations reportedly shape treatment outcomes, but have not been studied in the context of multimodal therapy in Crohn's disease (CD). Therefore, the current study investigated the role of treatment expectations for subjective symptom changes in CD patients who have undergone an integrative multimodal therapy program.

Methods
Validated questionnaires were completed at the start of the treatment program and post intervention. Pre-treatment expectations and experienced symptom change were assessed with the Generic Rating Scale for Previous Treatment Experiences, Treatment Expectations, and Treatment Effects (GEEE); stress levels were quantified with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and disease specific quality of life was quantified with the disease-specific Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ). We performed multiple linear and Bayesian regression to determine how expectations related to symptom change.

Results
N = 71 CD patients (66.2% female) were included. Stronger expectations regarding symptom improvement (b = 0.422, t = 3.70, p < .001) were associated with higher experienced symptom improvement. Additionally, Bayesian analysis provided strong evidence for including improvement expectations as a predictor of improvement experience (BFinclusion = 13.78).

Discussion
In line with research in other disorders, we found that positive treatment expectations were associated with experienced symptom improvement. In contrast, we found no indication that an experience of symptom worsening was associated with positive or negative baseline treatment expectations. Induction of positive expectations might be a potential avenue for improving treatment outcomes in CD therapy.