TY - JOUR T1 - In irritable bowel syndrome, antispasmodics and antidepressants improve abdominal pain and global assessment and symptom scores, but there is no evidence for the effectiveness of bulking agents JF - Evidence Based Medicine JO - Evid Based Med SP - 114 LP - 115 DO - 10.1136/ebmed-2011-100424 VL - 17 IS - 4 AU - Alexander C Ford Y1 - 2012/08/01 UR - http://ebm.bmj.com/content/17/4/114.abstract N2 - Commentary on: Ruepert L, Quartero AO, de Wit NJ, et al. Bulking agents, antispasmodics and antidepressants for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome.Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2011:CD003460. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional disorder of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract characterised by abdominal pain or discomfort, associated with a change in either frequency, or form of stool. The condition is chronic, with a relapsing and remitting natural history,1 and affects up to one in five people in the general population. IBS represents a significant economic burden to the health service, and there is no known structural cause to explain the symptoms that sufferers report. Therapy is therefore directed towards relief, or improvement, of symptoms. However, there remains controversy about which treatments are effective. Ruepert et al searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, CINAHL … ER -