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VIDEO: Physicians must be careful not to over, under treat Crohn’s
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ORLANDO — In this exclusive video perspective from Advances in IBD 2018, David Rubin, MD, from the University of Chicago, discusses some of the most common challenges physicians face when treating patients with Crohn’s disease.
One of those challenges was making sure the patient’s diagnosis is correct. Some patients that appear to have CD, might actually have very severe ulcerative colitis, and younger patients might have very early-onset IBD.
“If you have a patient with what you think is severe Crohn’s disease, and they were diagnosed at a very young age, you should be considering that,” Rubin told Healio Gastroenterology and Liver Disease.
In addition to stressing the difference between disease activity and disease severity, Rubin focused on over-treatment and under-treatment of CD.
“Under-treatment means, of course, using therapies that aren’t achieving their desired goals, and that allows the disease to progress and patients to continue suffering,” Rubin said. “Over-treatment implies that we’re using therapies that are not working and only exposing the patient to risk, or cost, and not achieving our desired goals.”
Disclosure: Rubin reports financial ties to AbbVie, Janssen, Pfizer and Takeda.