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References: Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's

  1. Definition & Facts for Crohn's Disease - National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) - The US government's plain-language guide to Crohn's disease, with linked pages on symptoms and causes, diagnosis, and treatment. Source for where Crohn's occurs, risk factors such as smoking and family history, extraintestinal effects, growth problems in children, and how colonoscopy is used.

  2. Definition & Facts of Ulcerative Colitis - NIDDK - The matching guide for ulcerative colitis, including its linked treatment page, which explains aminosalicylates, why steroids are used only short term, lifelong maintenance treatment, and surgery options. Both NIDDK pages also explain the higher colorectal cancer risk in long-standing colitis and the screening colonoscopies used to watch for it.

  3. Ulcerative colitis - Le Berre C, Honap S, Peyrin-Biroulet L. The Lancet, 2023 - A medical review of UC: causes, the typical first symptom of bloody diarrhea, the treatment classes, and the 10% to 20% of patients who still need surgery. The abstract is a clear one-paragraph overview.

  4. Crohn's disease - Dolinger M, Torres J, Vermeire S. The Lancet, 2024 - A medical review describing Crohn's as patchy and transmural, explaining how it is diagnosed, and noting the move toward deeper treatment goals and a psychosocial assessment as part of care.

  5. Incidence, Prevalence, and Racial and Ethnic Distribution of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in the United States - Lewis JD, et al. Gastroenterology, 2023 - The insurance-claims study behind this chapter's headline figure: about 721 per 100,000 Americans, roughly 2.39 million people, with new diagnoses peaking in the twenties.

  6. Prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression in patients with inflammatory bowel disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis - Barberio B, et al. Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, 2021 - The 77-study, 30,118-patient analysis examined in this chapter's "How to read a gut-brain claim" box, showing anxiety and depression symptoms are common in IBD and more common during active disease.

  7. Management of pediatric Crohn's disease: an ECCO-ESPGHAN guideline update - Shouval DS, et al. Journal of Crohn's and Colitis, 2026 - The newest European pediatric Crohn's guideline (published August 2026). It prefers exclusive enteral nutrition or the Crohn's Disease Exclusion Diet with partial enteral nutrition to induce remission in lower-risk luminal disease, recommends an anti-TNF biologic first for high-risk children, and sets endoscopic remission and normal growth as long-term goals. It updates the 2020 guideline (van Rheenen PF, et al., Journal of Crohn's and Colitis, 2021, PubMed ID 33026087), which this chapter cites for using repeated calprotectin tests to track treatment response. For how IBD is diagnosed in children (upper endoscopy plus colonoscopy for everyone suspected, and the IBD-unclassified category), see the ESPGHAN revised Porto criteria (Levine A, et al., Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, 2014, PubMed ID 24231644).

  8. STRIDE-II: An Update on the Selecting Therapeutic Targets in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (STRIDE) Initiative - Turner D, et al. Gastroenterology, 2021 - The international "treat to target" goals, including endoscopic healing, absence of disability, and normal growth in children.

  9. Systematic review with meta-analysis: Diagnostic performance of faecal calprotectin in distinguishing inflammatory bowel disease from irritable bowel syndrome in adults - Dajti E, et al. Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 2023 - Pooled 17 studies to estimate how well the calprotectin stool test separates IBD from IBS, and notes the studies' risk of bias.

  10. Do NSAIDs, antibiotics, infections, or stress trigger flares in IBD? - Singh S, Graff LA, Bernstein CN. American Journal of Gastroenterology, 2009 - A review that separates the association between perceived stress and flares from proof of cause. Useful background for the "IBD is caused by stress" Hype Meter card.

  11. FDA Approves Stelara for Pediatric Ulcerative Colitis - US Food and Drug Administration, 2026 - The FDA's announcement of ustekinumab approvals for children aged 2 and older with Crohn's disease (April 15, 2026) and ulcerative colitis, with a short description of pediatric IBD.

  12. Chronic vagus nerve stimulation in Crohn's disease: a 6-month follow-up pilot study - Bonaz B, et al. Neurogastroenterology & Motility, 2016 - The 7-patient pilot behind this chapter's Preliminary Hype Meter grade for vagus nerve stimulation in Crohn's. A good example of a promising but very early study.