TY - JOUR T1 - <span hwp:id="article-title-1" class="article-title">Review: antidepressants and psychological therapies improve symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome</span><span hwp:id="article-title-2" class="sub-article-title">Commentary</span> JF - Evidence Based Medicine JO - Evid Based Med SP - 119 LP - 119 DO - 10.1136/ebm.14.4.119 VL - 14 IS - 4 AU - Brooks D Cash Y1 - 2009/08/01 UR - http://ebm.bmj.com/content/14/4/119.abstract N2 - In patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), do antidepressant medications or psychological therapies improve symptoms?Included studies compared antidepressants with placebo or psychological therapies with no treatment or usual care in adults (⩾16 y of age) with IBS diagnosed by established criteria or by a clinician’s opinion. Outcomes were persistent IBS symptoms and adverse events.Medline and EMBASE/Excerpta Medica (to May 2008); Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (2007); conference abstracts (2001-07); and references were searched for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that involved ⩾7 days of treatment and ⩾7 days of follow-up. 13 RCTs of antidepressant therapy (n = 789, 44–100% women, 4–13 wks of treatment) and 20 RCTs of psychological therapy (n = 1278, 57–100% women, 6–26 wks of treatment) met the selection criteria. Methodological quality was generally good for the antidepressant trials (10 of 13 RCTs scored ⩾4 … ER -