Clinical–Alimentary TractHypnotherapy for Children With Functional Abdominal Pain or Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Section snippets
Study Participants
Children were recruited from the Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology of the Academic Medical Centre Amsterdam, the Netherlands. All children between 8 and 18 years who were diagnosed with either FAP or IBS according to the Rome II criteria1 and with a history of abdominal complaints of at least 12 months were invited to participate. Exclusion criteria were: the use of medication influencing gastrointestinal functions, a concomitant organic gastrointestinal disease, functional constipation,
Results
Between October 2002 and June 2005 a total of 55 children with abdominal pain fulfilling the Rome II criteria for FAP or IBS were referred by general pediatricians, pediatric gastroenterologists, and psychiatrists to the outpatient clinic of our tertiary centre (Figure 1). Of these patients 53 children agreed to participate in the study. Twenty-five patients were allocated to SMT and 28 to HT. Only 1 patient of the HT group did not provide baseline assessments and refused further therapy;
Discussion
This randomized controlled study is the first to demonstrate that gut-directed HT is highly effective in the treatment of children with long-lasting complaints of either IBS or FAP. Treatment was successful in 85% of the participants at 1 year follow-up, whereas only 25% of the children were in clinical remission after standard medical care, given by an experienced pediatric gastroenterologist and an experienced general pediatrician. This high success rate is remarkable, given that most
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All authors have seen and approved the final version.
- 1
A. M. Vlieger participated in patient selection and treatment of the patients, coordinated data analysis and interpretation, and was responsible for writing this report.
- 2
C. Menko-Frankenhuis carried out the HT and participated in data collection.
- 3
S. Wolfkamp compiled the data.
- 4
E. Tromp contributed to the data analysis and interpretation.
- 5
M. A. Benninga generated the initial idea for the study, coordinated the project, participated in patient selection and patient treatment, and contributed to the writing of this report.