Abstract Background Poor sleep is prevalent in those with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with benzodiazepines often used although not recommended for management of insomnia. This study aimed to characterise benzodiazepine use within an IBD population and it’s associations with sleep quality, co-morbid depression/anxiety and health status. Methods Data was collected through the IBD-SLEEP study. The questionnaire was distributed to tertiary hospital IBD mailing lists and advertised through social media and Crohn’s Colitis Australia. Validated instruments assessing sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index PSQI), overall health status (EQ-VAS from EQ-5D-5L), Depression (PHQ9) and Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) were used. Concomitant medications (including those for sleep, pain and mental health conditions), and disease phenotype were collected. Continuous variables were summarised as means and compared using t-tests or ANOVA. Categorical variables were compared using Fisher’s exact test. A p-value 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results Survey data included 530 participants of which 23 (4.4%) reported regular benzodiazepine use. Mean age was 42 years (SD 13), 61% had Crohn’s disease, and median disease duration was 10 years (IQR 3-17). IBD related medications included biologics in 50.6% of the cohort, immunomodulators in 34.5%, 5ASA in 32.1%, and steroids in 9.1%. Benzodiazepine users were more likely to concomitantly use antidepressants (p 0.001) and opioids (p 0.001), and be current smokers (p 0.049), (see Table 1). Benzodiazepine users reported a statistically significant difference in lower EQ-VAS health status scores (mean(SD) 43.6 (33.1) vs 62.0 (31.1); p = 0.006) compared with those non-users. Benzodiazepine users reported significantly higher PSQI scores (mean(SD), 13.0 (5.1) vs 8.4 (4.1); p 0.001), compared with non-users. Similarly, significantly higher anxiety levels reported in Benzodiazepine users (GAD-7 mean(SD) 9.1 (6.8) vs 4.8 (5.5); p 0.001) than non-users and significantly higher PHQ-9 depression scores (mean (SD) 15.5 (7.9) vs 8.0 (7.2); p 0.001) compared to non-users. Conclusion Benzodiazepine use in an IBD population was associated with lower quality of life, poorer sleep, and increased depressive and anxiety symptoms. Alternative therapies for insomnia such as iCBT should be considered. Conflict of interest: Dr. Baker, Justin: No conflict of interest Barnes, Alex: No conflict of interest Mountifield, Reme: No conflict of interest
Baker et al. (Thu,) studied this question.