Hypnosis for IBS: Does it work?

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or spastic colon can be very difficult to treat in many patients. There is paucity of medications available, and many of the strategies used actually have not been shown to be of benefit. Hypnosis has been gaining a lot of attention lately for this vexing problem.

Dr. Roberts and colleagues from the University of Birmingham in United Kingdom conducted a randomized controlled trial to evaluate this hypnotherapy as a complementary therapy and published their data in the British Journal of General Practice (Feb 2006).

Patients with IBS who had failed conventional treatment were included in the study. Patients in the study group received five sessions of hypnotherapy in addition to their usual management. Usual and conventional treatment was administered to the control group.

These investigators found that after a period of 3 months, significantly greater improvements were seen in the intervention group. This included improvement in pain, diarrhea and overall symptom scores . Quality of life was not improved. While the improvement in symptoms was not maintained over long-term, the patients in study group were significantly less likely to require medication, and the majority felt that their condition had improved.

Do you or someone you know has IBS? What treatments have worked for you? What are your thoughts on hypnosis or other forms of complimentary and alternative medicine?