A recent paper described electrical stimulation of spinal pathways to modulate pain in a patient who also had ulcerative colitis. While stimulation controlled neurogenic pain, on each occasion it was followed by a florid relapse of the colitis. In addition, local anesthetics and the alpha-adrenergic clonidine have been shown to be beneficial in controlling ulcerative colitis.
Some patients even report that the onset of their disease coincided with a stressful period.
The logistical problems involved in establishing a causal relationship between stress and disease activity in IBD are considerable. In our work, we have used an animal model of IBD to identify the ability of stress to reactivate dormant colitis, and to explore underlying mechanisms. Colitis was maximal at day 5 following 6mg DNB and the colon fully recovered at 6 weeks. However, when 2mg DNB was combined with a combination of restraint and acoustic stress, the animals became ill, lost weight and exhibited signs of acute colitis using the above described parameters. Stress alone had no effect.