Abstract
The patient was a 27-year-old female. She had been diagnosed as suffering from ulcerative colitis (UC) at 21 years of age. There was continued exacerbation and palliation. The symptoms of UC became aggravated upon her marriage at the age of 25. UC remained in remission for a period of 1 year from 1987. Mucobloody diarrhea occurred in August, 1988 and she was hospitalized because of strong left pygalgia on the 20th of September. Bone scintigram revealed a high uptake in the left sarcoiliac joint, diagnosed as sarcoiliitis. Balium enema and colonoscopy showed the findings of active UC of a left-sided colitis. Pygalgia became relieved and UC improved following the administration of steroids and intravenous hyperalimentation. The patient had spent her life in a dormitory during her junior college days, being very anxious about personal relationships and studying hard regardless of whether she had sufficient sleeping time or not. Psychological stress at this time was thought to have brought about the onset of UC. Her overadaptive behavior was noted in her new working environment and in her marriage. The recent worsening of her UC occurred just when she was planning to become pregnant and problems concerning living with her mother-in-law arose. These events made her stressful and her UC worsened. The patient had an overadaptive, alexithymic and alexisomic personality and psychosocial stress was found to influence the clinical course of her UC. We gave her supportive and sympathetic therapy and discussed problems arising from their domestic life with her husband and adjusted the conflicts between the couples. Therefore their psychological stress extremely decreased. We thought that it was one of the factors which UC has remissioned for more than three years.
