Treatment with a digital bowel-focused hypnotherapy program led to an improvement in abdominal pain and bowel symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). American researchers write this down Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Gut-focused hypnotherapy (GDH) is a safe treatment option for patients with IBS that achieves good results. However, it is not widely used in clinical practice, probably due to a lack of trained therapists. The EASITx study was designed to assess the effectiveness and safety of a digital GDH program compared to digital muscle relaxation (MR) in adult patients with IBS. Participants were randomized to 12 weeks of treatment with digital GDH (Regulora), or digital MR via an app on a smartphone or tablet. The primary endpoint was a ≥ 30% reduction from baseline in mean daily abdominal pain intensity in the 4 weeks after treatment.
Of the 378 randomized patients, 362 were treated and included in the effectiveness analysis. A similar percentage of GDH (30.4%) and MR (27.1%) treated patients achieved the primary endpoint (p = 0.5352). Significantly more patients treated with GDH compared to MR had a response during the last 4 weeks of treatment (30.9% vs. 21.5%; p = 0.0232) and during the entire treatment period (29.3% vs. .18.8%; p=0.0254). Improvements in abdominal pain, stool consistency and frequency were similar across all IBS subtypes. No serious adverse events or adverse events leading to study discontinuation were reported.
Source:
Berry SK, Berry R, Recker D, et al. A Randomized Parallel-group Study of Digital Gut-directed Hypnotherapy vs Muscle Relaxation for Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2023;21:3152-9.
