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Summary & Participants

This program discusses medical issues affecting children diagnosed with Crohn's disease and ulcerative coltitis, types of inflammatory bowel disease. It follows the story of a teenager and explores the effect of IBD on the teenager and her mother, and the various medical strategies used to manage the disease.

Medically Reviewed On: June 12, 2008

Webcast Transcript

BROOKE SHEALY: Hello. I'm Brooke Shealy. Recently I hosted a panel discussion sponsored by the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America on issues relating to medical therapy for children with IBD. I spoke with Allison Spitz, from Phoenix, Arizona. Allison was diagnosed with IBD two years ago. Also with us was Allison's mom, Esther Battock. Joining us, too, was Allison's doctor, Marla Dubinsky, from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

BROOKE SHEALY: Well, let's first start off with you, Allie. Now when were you diagnosed with IBD, and tell us a little bit about the diagnosis.

ALLISON SPITZ: Well, I was diagnosed October of 2001. At first, it was terrifying, I'll admit. I was hoping that, you know, it was something that was curable right away. You know, one medicine, that was it, all done. But the first doctor I had gone to told me that I had ulcerative colitis at first. You know, never hearing those words before, I was really scared. I remember crying in the doctor's office and just not knowing what it was, nothing about it.

BROOKE SHEALY: Now Esther, what was your initial reaction to the diagnosis?

ESTHER BATTOCK: Well, initially, again, I thought, you know, it was just transient diarrhea, it was no big deal. And when we heard the diagnosis, part of me was surprised, I didn't want to hear it. But the other part was kind of confirmation of a fear that I just had, because I was familiar with a lot of the symptoms from family members that had it. So it really hit me like a ton of bricks also and I also cried when the doctor told me.

BROOKE SHEALY: Now Allie, let's talk about your experience with medications. Can you walk us through?

ALLISON SPITZ: Well, when I first saw the doctor, we started, you know, with traditional medicine, you know, the normal course of it. And over a couple of months, I didn't really notice any improvements. I was still having the same symptoms. I felt a little bit better, you know, with the help of the medicines, but still it was not enough.

BROOKE SHEALY: And Dr. Dubinsky, can you please put Allie's experience in perspective with regard to maybe other patients?

MARLA DUBINSKY, MD: Well, I think that Allie really had pretty well a very typical therapeutic approach. She was started — given that she had colitis as her predominant location of her disease, she was started on a local anti-inflammatory in the family of what we call the 5-ASA products.

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