# Trivia question...



## Lookin'foraLife (Jan 2, 2009)

Does anybody know what percentage of IBS-C sufferers improve while taking anti-depressants?Kathleen maybe?


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Here is a small study with some very good resultshttp://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal...=1&SRETRY=0It is with an SSRI antidepressant and if you click to the full paper you can see some graphs where the patient on the antidepressant had a lot fewer symptoms than the placebo group.


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## Lookin'foraLife (Jan 2, 2009)

Thanks for the article. Though it claims it's benificial for "short-term" use. What about long-term?Also, do antidepressants have higher success rates than hypnotherapy techniques?


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

The one head to head I know was with CBT, but CBT and hypnotherapy have about the same effectiveness rate in separate studies on them, and in the head to head CBT was as good as the antidepressants (if you limited the antidepressant results to people who would get an effective dose in the blood).The advantage to CBT in that study was the effects lasted after therapy was over while the antidepressant helping tends to end once you stop taking them.Almost nothing is studied for long term use so most of the time all you ever have is it will work for a few weeks or a few months. Very few things get tested on a 5-10 year times scale. Everything gets tested on a 6 week to 6 month time frame and in science you can't say it will be good for longer than the studies go.


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## cookies4marilyn (Jun 30, 2000)

When I first came to this BB in 2000, I was on almost every med there was, but I had IBS-D - some of those meds can actually cause "C" as a side effect - and as Kathleen mentions, you have to either keep on them, or as what happened in my case, the good effects are either short term, or you have to increase the dose, then the side effects become bothersome, or it stops working altogether. The hypnotherapy I did (the recorded CDs - IBS Audio Program) has had lasting effects long term, and no side effects - but of course, there are a few people who do not repsond to it, but most people do see some very good to excellent results, and at the very least, get the benefit of being more relaxed and better sleep. The IBS Audio Program had follow-up over three years upon completion and most folks continued or even got better improvement over time.


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