A Meta-Analysis on the Effects of Mind-Body Therapy on Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#Previous randomized controlled trials (RCT) found that mind-body therapy can improve the health outcomes of patients with irritablebowel syndrome (IBS). The purpose of this meta-analysis was to identify the combined effects of mind-body therapy on patients’ IBSsymptoms, quality of life, anxiety, and depression. @*Methods@#A systematic literature search was conducted using various databases such asPubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL CENTRAL, DBpia, RISS, and KISS. The primary outcome variables were IBS symptoms and quality of life; the secondaryoutcome variables were anxiety and depression. Comprehensive Meta-Analysis version 3.0 was used to analyze the extracted data.The effect size was calculated using standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI). @*Results@#Eleven final RCTs wereused for this meta-analysis. Mind-body therapy was found to have a significant effect on the IBS patients’ symptoms (SMD, -0.63; 95% CI,-0.77 to -0.48), quality of life (SMD, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.40 to 1.66), anxiety (SMD, -0.28; 95% CI, -0.47 to -0.09), and depression (SMD,-0.31; 95% CI, -0.06 to -0.12). @*Conclusion@#This meta-analysis reveals that mind-body therapy significantly improves IBS patients’ symptoms,quality of life, anxiety, and depression. The results suggest that, in the future, appropriate mind-body therapy should be applied toKoreans suffering from IBS. Moreover, the therapy’s long-term effects should be assessed.