Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: Non-Medical Treatment May Rapidly Relieve Severe IBS Symptoms

I have read the original article. Unfortunately, they don't give the number of D,C or A. Participants were identified using the Rome II criteria so they had IBS for at least 3 months. The report does not provide very good overall descriptive population statistics about symptoms, time since onset, etc.

Subjects were volunteers - in other words the population was self-selected and not chosen randomly from the population. The author's identified the later as an important limitation saying "There were important limitations to this study. As is the case in many psychotherapy trials, our sample included subjects who volunteered for a behavioral treatment for a medical roblem. It is possible that our subjects were more psychologically minded, motivated, and open to a biobehavioral formulation of their condition than those who did not seek psychological treatment for their IBS."

Unfortunately, the article gives few specifics details since most measurements were made using aggregated score scales. The results in the original paper don't seem as impressive as reported in the Internet posting.

The American College of Gastroenterology in its evidence based guidelines for managing IBS recognize "Cognitive behavioral therapy, dynamic psychotherapy, and hypnotherapy but not relaxation therapy are more effective than usual care in relieving global symptoms of IBS (Grade 1C)". Grade 1C is a strong recommendation with weak evidence to support it. Similarly the British guidelines say cognitive behaviorial therapy "may help patients cope with their symptoms without necessarily abolishing them."

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