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Who is affected?
 There
is no national database of people who have Crohn’s Disease. The
following estimates are taken from the forthcoming IBD Guidelines to be
published by the British Society of Gastroenterology in 2004.
Affects
between 30,000 and 60,000 people in the UK, that’s about 1 in 1200
Between
3,000 and 6,000 new cases are diagnosed each year
The
most common age for diagnosis is between 15 and 25.
Crohn's
disease affects men and women equally.
In
1996, a study from South Glamorgan reported a doubling of the number of
children diagnosed with Crohn’s disease between 1983 and 1993, and, in
1999, a study of children in Scotland has reported a 50% increase over
10 years in the incidence of Crohn’s disease in children aged 16 or
under.
Symptoms and Treatment
Crohn's
disease can affect anywhere from the mouth to the rectum but most
commonly affects the small intestine. It causes inflammation, deep
ulcers and scarring to the wall of the intestine and often occurs in
patches with healthy tissue in between. There is no cure for Crohn’s
disease at present.
The
main symptoms are pain, urgent diarrhoea, severe tiredness and loss of
weight. Crohn's is quite often associated with other inflammatory
conditions affecting the joints, skin and eyes. Most patients will be
treated with drugs, including steroids, to reduce inflammation or by
means of special liquid feeds to rest the bowel. Surgery may be required
to remove narrowed or damaged parts of the intestine.
The
condition is named after Dr Burril Crohn, one of the three doctors who
first identified the disease in 1932.
The cause of Crohn's disease
The
cause has not yet been identified.
Recent Research
Research
is focusing on why some families have a greater predisposition to
Inflammatory bowel disease (both Crohn's disease and the related
Ulcerative colitis) than other families and on the process of
inflammation which is created when the immune system responds to a
foreign agent. It is possible that patients are over-reacting to some
stimulus or that their immune system fails to control the level of
inflammation after responding to the stimulus.
Both
Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative colitis are more common among close
relatives of people who have IBD than in the general population. There
are some families in which Crohn's disease affects one person and
Ulcerative colitis another, suggesting that the two disorders share an
inherited susceptibility. Family studies in London, Oxford, Paris and
elsewhere have identified the location of two genes which pre-dispose to
the conditions, but their function is not yet known. It is likely that,
at least for some patients, an inherited susceptibility interacts with
unidentified environmental factor(s) to induce the disease. Particular
genes may also help to determine the severity of the illness.
There
has been publicity about the possibility that an organism called
Mycobacterium paratuberculosis (MAP) may be a cause of Crohn's disease.
This is based on the work of Professor John Hermon-Taylor from St
George's Hospital in London, who believes that MAP, which causes Johne's
disease in cattle and sheep with symptoms very similar to Crohn's
disease, is transferred through milk and water systems to affect a
proportion of the population. An expert review group set up by NACC has
found that the evidence for MAP causing Crohn’s Disease remains
inconclusive (read
the report)
The
possibility that food might be the cause of Crohn’s disease has appeal,
but no specific dietary cause has been found. Some patients find that
their symptoms improve if they omit certain foods, and liquid diets are
sometimes used in treatment as an alternative to drugs. The European
Union is currently funding a major study into diet.
Click here for an overview of research into IBD funded by NACC.
In March 2004, NACC has funded £320,000 of new
research into Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. Since 1984,
members have raised over £3 million and more than 100 research awards
have been made to hospitals and universities throughout the United
Kingdom. |
