Home-based cognitive behavioral therapy relieves IBS symptoms

Persons with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can relieve their symptoms as effectively by following a self-administered, at-home cognitive behavioral program as they can by undergoing a 10-week in-office program administered by a trained therapist, a new pilot study has shown. The findings are important because there are no reliable medicines available to treat successfully the full range of symptoms of this chronic, often debilitating, disorder that affects an estimated 14-24 percent of women and 5-19 percent of men in the U.S.