About 10% to 15% of people in North America have IBS, and it’s twice as common in women. However, only about one-third of people with the intestinal disorder seek treatment.
The exact cause of IBS remains unknown, and that lack of knowledge has led to the use of a variety of treatments, including fiber supplements, probiotics, antidepressants, behavioral-based therapies, psychotherapy, food modification, acupuncture, and laxatives. However, many treatments are controversial because study results have been mixed.
Newer and more expensive medications have been introduced to the public, but some were ineffective or withdrawn from the market due to side effects. The recent study sheds light on the cheap and readily available treatments that can help patients, says study coauthor Eamonn M. Quigley, MD, a professor of medicine and physiology at University College Cork in Ireland.
“Medical science has tended to ignore IBS; it wasn’t appreciated how much of an impact it can have on a patient’s quality of life,” he says.
In the new analysis, researchers systematically reviewed 38 studies from the last 25 years; more than 2,500 volunteers were involved. That research compared therapies—all relatively cheap, safe, and readily available—to a placebo or to no treatment at all.
The team looked at three treatments—soluble fiber, peppermint oil, and antispasmodics, which are drugs that relax the smooth muscle in the gut and relieve cramping—and found that they were all more effective than a placebo, according to the report in the British medical journal BMJ.
