At-home cognitive behavior program may help IBS symptoms
Irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, can make life miserable - you just never know when that painful cramping will start and you’ll need to be as close to a bathroom as possible.
Research has shown that a psychological treatment called cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) can help some people with IBS learn how to manage their symptoms somewhat. The problem is, it’s not always easy to get out to the many appointments that are needed to learn the techniques and, in some areas, there aren’t enough people who are available to do this therapy.
According to an article posted online on the Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology’s web site, which is also scheduled to be published in the journal’s July 2008 issue, an at-home CBT program can be as effective as following an in-office program.
The at-home program was developed so that patients could follow with self-study materials and they attended four office sessions to be sure that they were learning and using the techniques properly.
Seventy-five patients with IBS participated in a study testing the effectiveness of the program. They were randomized to one of three groups: a standard in-office 10-session of CBT, the home-based program, and a wait-list group - these patients did not receive treatment but monitored their symptoms.
Although the researchers acknowledge that more study needs to be done, they found that patients in both treatment groups - the in-office and at-home programs, had clearly improved while there was little improvement in the waiting list group. In fact, when comparing the two treatment groups, the at-home group had a 72% improvement compared with the office group with just under 61% improvement.
This is an interesting study because many people either can’t make it out for regular CBT therapy or they may be reluctant to - so if they can do the majority of the work at home, they may be more willing to give it a try.
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