DOES DEPRESSION CAUSE IBS OR IBS CAUSE DEPRESSION?

“Treating IBS as a psychological condition is ineffective.”

Various Psychological treatments are often recommended or prescribed for our IBS symptoms. A recent careful study of the literature on these treatments showed the psychological treatments often prescribed for IBS patients are barely helpful short term and no help at all at permanently relieving our group of symptoms. They do seem to be a little more effective than waiting and doing nothing though! This is the good news I guess.

The use of antidepressants is also becoming common. The good news is this is a wonderful new way to increase sales of old drugs. Since people who have to live with the life-ruining symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome do often end up depressed bout our life, and anti-depressant will certainly help some us “feel better” after treatment. These drugs may even seem to make some bowel problems lessen, just like when we stop throwing kerosene on fire it will not burn as hot. But that does not mean the cause of the fire has been taken care of. Aggravate and provoke and irritate is not the same as to” cause”. The heat lamp may hatch the egg but the chicken made the egg!

This is certainly no “cure” of IBS, nor a treatment that gets to the root cause of the symptoms. It’s all sort of a psychological band-aid for everyone involved. When an IBS patient says, “well my symptoms are not much better, but I am coping with them much better.” This is deemed “satisfactory relief” by some.

For life’s other tough problems we have TAVERNS. Are they a cure? Would someone prescribe a 3-hour session with our friendly bartender to help us “feel better”? We usually do for a while. What is the difference? We don’t see it.

Then there is hypnosis, another “ treatment” promoted for IBS. Since IBS is an actual organic inflammatory disease, will hypnosis designed to make us “feel it less” or respond to it less be a good thing or a bad thing? Actually at best it’s a type of trick played on your brain to alter your perception.

Since we now know IBS IS an actual organic inflammatory disease, hypnotherapy does not treat the cause of the condition nor the cause of the symptoms. It alters your perception of the symptoms.

A “hypnotherapist” may be able to hypnotize me into “feeling” that plunging my hand into steaming water is a pleasant experience. However, he will still need to transport me to the emergency room for treatment of the burns when I do.

The studies on these types of treatment prove their own limitations. Behavioral therapies alter our perception of our symptoms so we tolerate them better, or reduce the stress they cause, and so we report feeling a bit better, a better quality of life”. This is not the same as removing the symptoms and living a normal life. That is rare until you get to the real cause.