Gut-directed hypnotherapy improves abdominal pain, stool consistency in IBS
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CHICAGO — Digital gut-directed hypnotherapy resulted in greater improvement in abdominal pain and stool symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome compared with digital muscle relaxation, according to research.
“This study demonstrates that an FDA-approved, digital therapeutic that delivers gut-directed hypnotherapy improved abdominal pain and bowel habits in around a third [of patients] and provided adequate relief of GI symptoms in nearly two-thirds of IBS patients,” William D. Chey, MD, AGAF, FACG, FACP, RFF, H. Marvin Pollard Professor of Gastroenterology and chief of the division of gastroenterology at Michigan Medicine, told Healio. “GDH delivered by the mobile app led to improvements that were similar to muscle relaxation delivered by a mobile app.”
Chey and colleagues compared the safety and efficacy of a self-administered, gut-directed hypnotherapy (GDH) program vs. digital muscle relaxation in adults with IBS in a randomized, double-blind, controlled study at 26 U.S. centers, the results of which were presented at Digestive Disease Week. They enrolled patients aged 18 to 70 years who met the Rome IV criteria for IBS and who reported an average worst daily pain severity score of at least 3 on an 11-point scale over 4-week run-in period.
Researchers randomly assigned 378 patients to 12 weeks of treatment with digital gut-directed hypnotherapy via the North Carolina protocol or digital muscle relaxation using a mobile app. Of these, 362 were included in the efficacy analysis.
The primary outcome of interest was at least a 30% reduction from baseline in average daily abdominal pain intensity 4 weeks after treatment, while secondary outcomes included mean change from baseline abdominal pain, stool consistency and frequency.
According to results, 30.4% of patients treated with GDH achieved the primary endpoint compared with 27.1% treated with muscle relaxation, although the difference was not significant (P = 0.5352).
In addition, more patients in the GDH-treated group were abdominal pain responders during the final 4 weeks of treatment (30.9% vs. 21.5%, P = .0232) and over the entire treatment period (29.3% vs. 18.8%, P = .0254), and 44.9% of patients treated with GDH were stool consistency responders from weeks 13 through 16 after treatment, compared with 41.3% with muscle relaxation. Researchers reported no adverse events in either group.
“This study provides support for adding evidence-based, behavioral health digital therapeutics to our toolboxes for patients with IBS,” Chey told Healio. “Digital therapeutics may allow us to bring behavioral health services to every patient with IBS.”
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Berry R, et al. Abstract 606: A randomized parallel-group study of self-administered, digital gut-directed hypnotherapy vs. muscle relaxation for irritable bowel syndrome. Presented at: Digestive Disease Week; May 5-9, 2023; Chicago (hybrid meeting).
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