Acupuncture for Irritable Bowel Syndrome

A new study shows promising outcomes using acupuncture to treat patients with IBS.

A team led by Ling-Yu Qi tested the feasibility of evaluating the efficacy of acupuncture to treat patients with IBS.

The results showed substantial improvements in the primary outcome for all 3 groups studied.

What is IBS?

Irritable bowel syndrome or IBS is a group of symptoms that affect your digestive system.

Common symptoms are constipation, diarrhea, gas, and bloating.

It’s estimated that about 10%-15% of the adult population in the United States have IBS.

The study Acupuncture for Treatment of Diarrhea Predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Conclusions and Relevance In this pilot randomized clinical trial, acupuncture in both the SA and NSA groups showed clinically meaningful improvement in IBS-D symptoms, although there were no significant differences among the 3 groups. These findings suggest that acupuncture is feasible and safe; a larger, sufficiently powered trial is needed to accurately assess efficacy. [courtesy of JAMA network]