People with IBD may go through months or even years without symptoms, which is known as remission; a flare-up happens when those symptoms reappear. The goals for treatment are to increase the amount of time between flare-ups, decrease how severe the flare-ups are, and improve quality of life. IBD is considered to be in endoscopic remission when an endoscopy does not show evidence of an inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract.