Crohn's Disease

Treatment Options

Specific medications are used to treat diarrhea and abdominal cramps. Anti-diarrheal drugs slow the muscles of the intestine which in turn slow the passage of stool through the body and help with diarrhea. While abdominal pain often occurs with IBD, it is important to note that the pain is a consequence of the disease and, if treated appropriately, the pain should subside. People with Crohn’s should be careful to avoid taking an excess of pain killers and anti-diarrheal drugs since this may lead to complications.

Medications
Medications include anti-inflammatory drugs (sulfasalazine/5-ASA), corticosteroids (prednisone and budesonide), immunosuppressives (methotrexate and azathioprine) and immunomodulatory agents (infliximab). Some of these may be given by different methods including oral, rectal and intravenously. Antibiotics may be useful in certain circumstances for Crohn's disease.

Surgery
People with both Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis may need surgery at some point in their lives. Surgery is less common in ulcerative colitis than in Crohn's disease and is often performed when ulcerative colitis is no longer responding to medical treatment. Unlike Crohn's disease, surgery will cure ulcerative colitis by removing all diseased bowel. With the colon being completely removed the patient may require an ileostomy (bag outside the body to collect waste) or a second operation to form a new rectum (called a pouch procedure).

Despite all of the advances in medical research over the last several decades, we still do not know the cause of IBD and much further research is required.