Therapies to alter behaviour could be the most effective first step to cure irritable bowel syndrome, more than existing go-to treatments, a new study suggests.
Irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, is a common chronic gut disorder characterised by bloating, diarrhoea, and recurrent abdominal pain, with stress and food triggers known to play a major role.
Currently, there are no known cures for IBS, but diet changes, lifestyle modifications, and laxative drugs are recommended as the go-to treatment options to provide relief from the chronic condition.
However, even with these approaches, symptoms can persist in many.
Previous studies suggest stress, hormonal changes, and sleep deprivation are also key triggers of IBS.
Earlier research has also hinted that mental health counselling to reframe thoughts, reduce anxiety linked to worse gut symptoms, and hypnotherapy can reduce pain and help patients cope.
Now, a new study published in the journal The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology suggests mental health-directed treatments, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), could be effective.
“We aimed to evaluate the relative efficacy of the available behavioural therapies in IBS,” researchers explained.
In the study, scientists assessed 67 clinical trials involving more than 7000 participants, which probed IBS behaviour therapies lasting between four and 12 weeks compared with various control groups of individuals who received either dietary advice or laxatives.
Researchers found that mind-directed therapies like CBT and gut-directed hypnotherapy, delivered either in-person or via the internet, were more effective than standard treatments.
They suspect these therapies work by healing the gut-brain-signalling known to be behind IBS.
The latest study suggests rather than being offered after traditional interventions fail, behavioural therapies like CBT could instead be rolled out much earlier to IBS patients.
“Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) management guidelines recommend that behavioural therapies, particularly brain–gut behaviour therapies, should be considered as a treatment,” scientists wrote.
However, researchers call for further clinical trials that directly compare different types of behavioural therapies to standard ones before IBS treatment guidelines can be updated.
“Several behavioural therapies are efficacious for global symptoms in IBS, although the most evidence exists for those classed as brain–gut behaviour therapies,” scientists wrote.
