Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Medical Treatments
(asked on 18th July 2017) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which clinical commissioning groups fund (a) acupuncture, (b) reflexology, (c) psychological interventions, (d) psychodynamic interpersonal therapy, (e) hypnotherapy and (f) cognitive behaviour therapy for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome.
The commissioning of services for people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a local matter, and information about the configuration of individual services is not collected.
‘Irritable bowel syndrome in adults: Diagnosis and management of irritable bowel syndrome in primary care’, published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in 2008, sets out best practice on the diagnosis treatment and support of patients with IBS. Local National Health Service commissioners should consider NICE clinical guidelines when planning and developing services for local populations.
The NICE guideline recommends management approaches to IBS that include dietary and lifestyle advice, pharmacological therapy and referral for psychological interventions. Psychological interventions, as defined in the guideline, include cognitive behavioural therapy, hypnotherapy and psychological therapy. The guideline does not recommend reflexology or acupuncture. NICE routinely reviews its guidance to ensure it reflects the latest available evidence, and advised in February this year that no update to the IBS guideline was required at this time. The guideline can be found at that the following link: