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Researchers May Have Identified Cause of IBS

Dec 15 2000 10:38:08
Lee Hickling
drkoop.com Health News

Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles think they 
may have identified the cause of the mysterious and very common 
condition called irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and found an 
effective way to treat its symptoms.

IBS is a stomach and intestinal condition that affects an estimated 
20 percent of the adult population, and about twice as many women as 
men. Its symptoms include abdominal pain, diarrhea and constipation.

The Cedars-Sinai researchers found that 78 percent of the IBS 
patients they tested had what they called small intestinal bacterial 
overgrowth (SIBO), a condition in which excessive amounts of bacteria 
are present in the small intestine.

"The fact that SIBO was found in the majority of patients we tested 
suggests a strong association between the two conditions," said Mark 
Pimentel, M.D., the principal investigator of the study.

The researchers treated the patients who tested positive for SIBO 
with a 10-day course of antibiotics. Tests at the end of that time 
found that 25 of 47 patients had no bacterial overgrowth present, and 
that 12 of them had no IBS symptoms, while the symptoms were 
"significantly reduced" in the other 13.

Pimentel said the symptoms were also reduced in the patients in which 
some SIBO was still detected, suggesting that if treatment had been 
continued until it was completely eliminated, perhaps with an 
alternative antibiotic, better results would have been obtained.

Henry C. Lin, M.D., senior author of the study, said it is the first 
to demonstrate that complete eradication of SIBO with commonly 
prescribed antibiotics substantially improves IBS symptoms, 
particularly those of abdominal bloating, diarrhea and abdominal pain.

The investigators are now conducting follow-up studies to determine 
how long some patients need to be treated to completely eliminate 
SIBO. To prevent patients from developing a resistance to 
antibiotics, they intend to have future trials to test non-antibiotic 
therapies.

Lin is the assistant director of Cedars-Sinai's GI Motility Program. 
The study was published in the December issue of The American Journal 
of Gastroenterology.

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