TY - JOUR T1 - Review: smooth muscle relaxants treat abdominal pain and loperamide reduces diarrhoea in irritable bowel syndrome JF - Evidence Based Medicine JO - Evid Based Med SP - 20 LP - 20 DO - 10.1136/ebm.6.1.20 VL - 6 IS - 1 A2 - , Y1 - 2001/01/01 UR - http://ebm.bmj.com/content/6/1/20.abstract N2 - (2000) Ann Intern Med 133, 136. Jailwala J, Imperiale TF, Kroenke K.. Pharmacologic treatment of the irritable bowel syndrome: a systematic review of randomized, controlled trials.. Jul 18;. :. –47. .OpenUrlPubMedWeb of Science
 
 QUESTION: What is the effectiveness of pharmacological agents for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)? Studies were identified by searching Medline (1966–99), EMBASE/Excerpta Medica (1980–99), PsycINFO (1967–99), and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Registry with terms that included colonic diseases, functional, irritable, spastic, bowel, and colon and by manually searching bibliographies of relevant studies. Published studies in the English language were selected if they examined use of a pharmacological treatment for IBS on >10 adult patients for ≥2 weeks; included a placebo group; reported an outcome measure of global status or individual symptoms, or both, of IBS; and used a randomised, double blind, parallel group or crossover design. Data were extracted on the diagnostic criteria for IBS, participant characteristics, interventions, study design, methodological quality (scored between 1 and 5 with a higher score representing higher quality; studies with a score ≥4 were classified as “high quality”), and outcomes. Pharmacological agents were classified as having “positive” effectiveness if the study reported significant improvement in global status or individual IBS symptoms; otherwise, they were classified as having “negative” effectiveness. 70 studies (4836 patients, median age … ER -