WEIGHING THE RISKS AND BENEFITS IN IBD

Risk L1  / Medicine I 34

Sally Lorimer, Stan Cohen 

IBD is scary –whether you have Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis or another inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). So many things can happen. Pain can strike at any time. A sudden need to find a bathroom when there might not be any around. Blood. Or more pain. Or the doctor coming in and saying "we need to get more blood tests," or maybe worse, a stool collection, and definitely worse, a colonoscopy. Or worse yet, "you need surgery." You have to add the risk of taking the medicines the doctor wants to put you on to try to avoid surgery.

But there's a real balance that has to be considered–and that's the benefit of those medicines and the procedures that can guide the doctors in which ones they recommend. Because the risk of the medicine may not be nearly as bad as the risk of not taking the medicine and having the disease progress and do more damage. The doctor may have said that.

But sometimes the benefits seem outweighed by the risks–at least from what you've heard. Your doctor mentioned the medicine(s) he or she wants you to take and probably the risks.  But you've listened to someone who knows someone who had a problem with that drug or you've read about the possibility of developing cancer or a serious complication from one or more of the medicines.