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IBS medication, IBS drugs
or Irritable Bowel Syndrome Medication?
Best IBS medication. Learn about the Irritable Bowel drugs that can help your Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
IBS drugs are not the option a lot of sufferers like to look at, but they can be used to help manage your symptoms. They don’t work for everyone, but I would estimate a benefit to approximately 20% of sufferers in general.
Most sufferers use these Irritable Bowel drugs as an adjunct in conjunction with other options such as diet and lifestyle rather than the only treatment in the management of their condition.
About IBS MedicationIrritable Bowel syndrome medication is not a cure, but can help you to improve IBS symptoms such as pain, diarrhea and constipation. It is often a disappointment to patients who come to see me looking for the medication that will heal their IBS, only to be told that there are no Irritable Bowel drugs that will “cure” their symptoms. You should always be very wary of anyone quoting an IBS cure with IBS medication and believe me, there are plenty of those around on the internet. If there was a cure, your doctor would have already treated you and you wouldn't be reading this!
The choice of Irritable Bowel Syndrome medication depends on the type of IBS symptoms you suffer. They can be broadly divided into antispasmodics, laxatives, antidiarrheals, bulking agents and miscellaneous IBS drugs. They are particularly useful when IBS symptoms are severe, but should only be used in moderation or when more conservative measures such as diet and lifestyle are ineffective alone.
Antispasmodic IBS Drugs
Antispasmodic medication is used for pain relief. They have relatively widespread use as an IBS medication and may already be familiar to you. This Irritable Bowel Syndrome medication works by reducing the spasm symptoms that can be experienced in all forms of IBS. The most common ones used are
Mebeverine,
hyoscine butylbromide (Buscopan)
and
Peppermint Oil Capsules (Mintec, Colpermin).
The Irritable Bowel drugs Mebeverine and hyoscine are so called anticholinergic drugs which have an effect on gut muscles at a cell level to help prevent spasm thus reducing your pain. Like all drugs, these IBS medications do have side effects in some people and the most poorly tolerated of these are the other antimuscarinic effects which include dry mouth, blurring of vision and urine retention. Thankfully, these symptoms only occur in some so they shouldn’t be ignored on the grounds of side effects.
Peppermint Oil capsules such as
Peppermint Oil capsules such as Colpermin or Mintec
work on certain anti-pain channels to reduce the pain associated with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. They are a natural product which is favourable to a lot of sufferers and come in capsule form to allow passage of the medication in to the bowel. They have very few side effects, although they may increase reflux symptoms in some people as they can relax the sphincter mechanism between the oesophagus and stomach.
Antidiarrheal IBS Drugs
Antidiarrheals are used in diarrhoea predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome. These Irritable Bowel drugs work by reducing your gut contractility, but should be used with caution as they can increase your spasm symptoms too. The common ones used are
Loperamide
,
Co-Phenotrope
and
Codeine Phosphate.
They are from the same family of drugs as the opiates morphine and diamorphine (heroin). They work by stimulating the opiate receptors in the gut which in turn reduces the gut contraction or movements.
Antidiarrheal IBS medication such as loperamide, Co-phenotrope and codeines do have side effects and these can include abdominal pain, nausea, drowsiness, dizziness and bloating. Some IBS-D sufferers don’t like antidiarrheal Irritable Bowel Syndrome medication because of the constipating affect paradoxically!
The other group of antidiarrheals are the bulking agents. They work to bulk up your bowel motion and help aid passage of your stool through the gut usually by drawing fluid in to the fiber or drug. The commonly used bulking agents include
Ispaghula Husk (Fybogel)
,
Sterculia
and
Methylcellulose
. They can be used in all forms IBS.
Miscellaneous IBS drugs
Miscellaneous IBS medications include antidepressants (
see IBS and antidepressants
), 5-HT3 antagonists (
IBS Alosetron
) and 5-HT4 antagonists (
Tegaserod
). I won’t go in to detail with these drugs as the latter two are rarely used now, but if you click on their links you can find out more detail including indications, doses and common side effects. Antidepressants are commonly used and the link will give you a lot more information about this treatment choice.
So, in summary, Irritable Bowel Syndrome medication can help some IBS sufferers, but should be thought of as an adjunct rather than a cure in the management of IBS.
Feedback About Your Experience Of IBS Treatments To Help Others
Feedback about your IBS Treatments and what has worked, or not worked, to help other sufferers! By feeding back you are letting other sufferers know your experiences of treatments and also contributing to the IBS Help Online community. You may be helped from the comments of others too!
It’s so easy to do and you will remain totally anonymous unless you provide your name for others. No one will be able to contact you directly apart from through the comments and there is absolutely no registration, so it couldn't be easier!
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