The British Medical Journal recently published findings from a team of experts from Kings College London who have been investigating irritable bowel syndrome. What they discovered is that there is increasing evidence to show that irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) has psychological causes as well as physiological ones and these can be alleviated with hypnosis.
This led to the recommendation that doctors would be wise to suggest psychological treatments such as hypnosis and antidepressants to patients with IBS. This is particularly in light of the observation that the regular medicines provided to IBS sufferers do not work fully and sometimes even not at all.
IBS has several symptoms such as constipation, diarrhea and regular abdominal pain to name a few. Scientists are now thinking that the drugs being administered are not really effective because in the majority of IBS cases the causes are a combination of physical and mental factors.
Consultant Dr Ian Forgacs, gastroenterologist at Kings College said: "Patients with irritable bowel syndrome should be made aware of the existence of these treatments so that they can make informed choices," and "specifically, they should be made aware that using a psychological treatment does not mean that the disease is 'all in the mind'." Dr Forgacs discovered that "talking-therapies" like cognitive behavioral therapy produced the best results especially in the more distressed patients.
When hypnosis was used the therapist would focus on relaxation and get the patient to imagine a river flowing rapidly and then get them to imagine it flowing smooth and slow.
Dr Forgacs added that despite the success achieved by using hypnosis and other therapeutic practices there were a shortage of skilled therapists available so not all IBS sufferers would be able to avail of this method.
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