A Little Good New for IBS Sufferers to Start the Day

Good morning! I am a bit foggy today, so I think I will spend this morning's post on an In the News piece. It actually pinged into my inbox yesterday, but it is old news from May. Since I missed it at the time, maybe you did, too.

The subject is Childhood Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and hypnosis. Arine Vliegaer, M.D., Ph.D, of Saint Antonius Hospital in Nieuwegein (Netherlands) headed a randomized controlled trial and found hypnosis created a cure for IBS by the end of treatment in 59% of 53 young patients. This compares to the 12% who received standard care. And here's the really nice part: 85% were cured through hypnosis after a year of follow-up.

The subjects of the study (I think it might be okay to use the word subjects here as it refers to experimentation) were between the ages of eight and 18. All had suffered an average of 3.4 years from abdominal pain and IBS with no evidence of there being a physical problem. Considered a common condition for pediatric office visits, this has a "reported prevalence of between 1% and 19%."

Traditional medical care for IBS includes pain medication and education on sensitive gut. Finding potential triggers is also encouraged.

The Nitty Gritty of the Study
The control group was given standard medical care with six half hour sessions of supportive therapy. The mean pain scores for this group fell, but from 14.5 to only 9.8 by the end, though there was a little more of a drop after a year to 8.0.

The hypnosis group received three months of six half hour hypnotherapy sessions using the Manchester Protocol. The mean pain intensity scores for this group dropped from 13.5 at the beginning of the study to 3.0 at the end.

Only participant did not complete the treatment. This research found an 80% improvement in pain scores.

Source: www.medpagetoday.com