Improvements at 12 weeks after baseline were not maintained at 6 months. Future research should aim to improve adherence rates. Moreover, CCBT may not work for patients with IBD with comorbid depression.

Background Providing timely follow-up care for patients with inflammatory bowel disease in remission is important but often difficult because of resource limitations. Using smartphones to communicate symptoms and biomarkers is a potential alternative. We aimed to compare outpatient management using 2 smartphone apps (IBDsmart for symptoms and IBDoc for fecal calprotectin monitoring) vs standard face-to-face care. We hypothesized noninferiority of quality of life and symptoms at 12 months plus a reduction in face-to-face appointments in the smartphone app group. Methods Inflammatory bowel disease outpatients (previously seen more often than annually) were randomized to smartphone app or standard face-to-face care over 12 months. Quality of life and symptoms were measured quarterly for 12 months. Acceptability was measured for gastroenterologists and patients at 12 months. Results One hundred people (73 Crohn’s disease, 49 male, average age 35 years) consented and completed baseline questionnaires (50 in each group). Intention-to-treat and per-protocol analyses revealed noninferiority of quality of life and symptom scores at 12 months. Outpatient appointment numbers were reduced in smartphone app care (P < 0.001). There was no difference in number of surgical outpatient appointments or number of disease-related hospitalizations between groups. Adherence to IBDsmart (50% perfect adherence) was slightly better than adherence to IBDoc (30% perfect adherence). Good acceptability was reported among most gastroenterologists and patients. Conclusions Remote symptom and fecal calprotectin monitoring is effective and acceptable. It also reduces the need for face-to-face outpatient appointments. Patients with mild-to-moderate disease who are not new diagnoses are ideal for this system. Clinical Trial Registration Number ACTRN12615000342516.

The effects of psychotherapy on IBD is mixed: future studies should determine whether patient screening or measuring different dependent variables improves outcomes and whether particular psychotherapies are superior over others.

More longitudinal and interventional studies are needed to causally link coping strategies with psychological outcomes in IBD patients.

This is the first study to psychologically test patients with IBD during the first 6 months after diagnosis. Generally, the HRQOL of patients with IBD improves over this time. Maladaptive coping is associated with worse psychological anxiety, depression, and HRQOL physical outcomes; although until an interventional study is performed, reverse causation cannot be ruled out.