IBS Can Be Helped by ‘Mindfulness’ Training

The irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, is a common condition of the colon that can cause cramping, pain, bloating, gas, and diarrhea or constipation.  First described in 1950, early theories suggested that IBS was caused by a psychosomatic or mental disorder.  Since then specific criteria for its diagnosis and medications for its treatment have been developed.  However, due to often unsatisfactory results from medical treatments up to 50% of people turn to complementary alternative medicine.  In 1997 a general theory emerged that IBS is associated with a "derailing of the brain-gut axis."  This reasoning led researchers from the Center for Integrative Medicine, Baltimore, to assess possible benefits of mindfulness training in IBS patients.  They have published the results of their study in the American Journal of Gastroenterology. 

Seventy-five female IBS patients were randomly assigned to 8 weeks of mindfulness training or weekly attendance at an IBS support group for 8 weeks.  The training, a cognitive behavioral technique, included lessons on meditation, gentle yoga postures, and “body scanning” – focusing attention on one body area at a time, to detect muscle tension and other sensations.  All participants completed an IBS severity scale, an IBS-quality-of-life scale, and other psychiatric-based scales, before and after the 8-week treatment period, and again at the 3-month follow-up.

The women in the mindfulness training group had greater reductions in IBS severity immediately after the training ended and also after 3 months; the reductions were 26% vs. 6% (for support group therapy) immediately after treatment, and 38% vs. 12% after an additional 3 months.  Improvements in quality-of-life, psychological distress, and anxiety about bowel function were not changed immediately after  the 8-week treatments, but were significantly better in the mindfulness group after 3 additional months.

This study was apparently designed to address criticism of studies of mind-body therapies.  The mindfulness clearly responded to a greater extent, and for a longer period, than the support group patients, supporting the viewpoint that IBS is indeed a disruption of the “brain-gut axis”.  One of the researchers points out that mindfulness can be learnt in many ways – at a yoga or meditation center, or through a book or CD; but an 8-week class program is better.