Multidisciplinary Care More Effective for Follow-Up GI Recovery

In treating gastrointestinal disorders, a multidisciplinary approach that brings together gastroenterologists, dietitians, gut hypnotherapists, psychiatrists, and biofeedback physiotherapists yields better results that standard of care by a gastroenterologist alone, according to a new study published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

“This study found in patients with severe functional gastrointestinal disorders manifestations, a personalized, integrated multidisciplinary approach including gastroenterologists, general practitioners, psychologists, dieticians and exercise physiologists results in superior gastrointestinal symptom improvements and reduction of anxiety and depression symptoms,” the researchers wrote. “It would also be of interest for future research to explore the underlying mechanisms of action of a multidisciplinary approach, and the long-term effects on both patient outcomes and health care utilization.”

Gathering data from 46 randomly selected patients receiving standard care and 97 patients receiving multidisciplinary care for the single-center study, the researchers drew conclusions based on general symptoms, specific disorder status, psychological state, quality of life, and cost, recorded 1 year after treatment.

In general, they found that “multidisciplinary care resulted in superior clinical and cost outcomes, when compared with standard gastroenterologist-only care at end of treatment.”

More specifically, 76% of the multidisciplinary clinic patients reported global symptom improvement compared to 65% of standard care group. When asked to rate their symptoms on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being “much better”, 37% of the patients receiving multidisciplinary care scored 5 versus 20% of the standard care group. In general, patients in the standard care group battled with anxiety and depression more than those receiving multidisciplinary care. Patients with irritable bowel syndrome saw a considerable reduction in symptoms with multidisciplinary care vs gastroenterologist-only care (66% vs 38%).

Overall, the study provided evidence that patients receiving multidisciplinary care experienced a much-improved quality of life as well as reduction in post-treatment follow-up and hospitalization costs.

“Twelve months after the completion of treatment, integrated multidisciplinary clinical care achieved a greater proportion of patients with improvement of symptoms, psychological state, quality of life, and cost, compared with gastroenterologist-only care,” the study concluded.

—Priyam Vora

Reference:
Basnayake C, Kamm M, Stanley A et al. Long-term outcome of multidisciplinary versus standard gastroenterologist care for functional gastrointestinal disorders: A randomized trial. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2022;20(9):2102-2111. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cgh.2021.12.005