![]() The app the research team tested combines education, relaxation techniques, tools to overcome an aversion to physical activity, an interactive CBT skills program, and information about healthful eating. She also wrote a book on the subject, “Reclaim Your Life from IBS: A Scientifically Proven Plan for Relief Without Restrictive Diets,” which became the basis for the strategy in the app. But CBT changes how the brain processes stress.”Īs a clinician who has treated dozens of IBS patients, Hunt understands just how well this can work. “The discomfort gets massively amplified in the brain, which then responds with stress hormones that exacerbate issues with the gut and can cause diarrhea or constipation. “All of this leads to a terrible thing called visceral hypersensitivity, which is where people become much more aware of sensations in the gut, sensations most people wouldn’t notice,” Hunt says. These treatments have proven effective for IBS because the disorder likely results from a miscommunication between the central nervous system, which controls the brain, and the enteric nervous system, which orchestrates GI behavior, coupled with something called dysbiosis, or a change in the gut microbiome. In the case of IBS, that could mean relaxation training and cognitive reframing or de-catastrophizing, for instance, or exposure therapy around foods and situations feared for their potential to cause GI distress. ![]() The benefits of CBTĬognitive behavioral therapy focuses on changing the thought process and behavior around a particular ailment. The researchers will publish their findings in an upcoming issue of the journal JMIR mHealth uHealth, a pre-print of which is available currently. They found that using version 1.0 of the app for eight weeks led to improvements in health-related quality of life, fewer gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, and less anxiety about visceral sensations, benefits the participants retained three months later. To find out whether that alternative treatment was effective, Hunt and colleagues conducted a randomized control trial. It offers resources centered around cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that focus on gut-brain miscommunication and hypersensitivity around gut sensations happening for someone with IBS. “Nothing is actually targeting the underlying cause of the disorder.”Ī new mobile digital therapeutic, Zemedy, aims to flip the script. “That kind of treatment is aimed at reducing symptoms,” Hunt says. They also incorporate over-the-counter laxatives and prescription medications called antispasmodics intended to help with cramping. They usually ask people to adopt restrictive diets, keep symptom diaries, and reduce stress. Yet typical treatments-often called “treatment as usual” by the field-don’t tend to succeed. She is also author of the book “Reclaim Your Life from IBS: A Scientifically Proven Plan for Relief without Restrictive Diets.” Hunt is the associate director of clinical training in the Department of Psychology in the School of Arts & Sciences.
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