Effects of Duloxetine on Gastrointestinal Symptoms, Depression, Anxiety, Stress, and Quality of Life in Patients with the Moderate-to-Severe Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Mohammad Reza Sharbafchi; Hamid Afshar Zanjani; Zahra Saneian; Awat Feizi; Hamed Daghaghzadeh; Peyman Adibi

doi:10.4103/abr.abr_379_21

Effects of Duloxetine on Gastrointestinal Symptoms, Depression, Anxiety, Stress, and Quality of Life in Patients with the Moderate-to-Severe Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Adv Biomed Res. 2023 Nov 29:12:249. doi: 10.4103/abr.abr_379_21. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Mohammad Reza Sharbafchi¹, Hamid Afshar Zanjani¹, Zahra Saneian¹, Awat Feizi², Hamed Daghaghzadeh³, Peyman Adibi³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
² Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
³ Department of Internal Medicine, Integrative Functional Gastroenterology Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.

Abstract

Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic disease. There are very few studies on the Duloxetine efficacy in improving the gastrointestinal and psychological symptoms, in IBS. The current study attempted to evaluate the effectiveness of Duloxetine in symptoms and quality of life in moderate-to-severe IBS patients.

Materials and methods: This is a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial in which the population is composed of 37 patients with moderate-to-severe IBS in Isfahan from March 2018 to March 2019. For the intervention group, Duloxetine was administered for three months, and the treatment protocol was the same for the control group but using a placebo. The severity of IBS symptoms, quality of life, and negative emotions such as depression, anxiety, and stress were assessed.

Results: Our data showed no significant difference between the two groups of the study for the severity of IBS symptoms (P value = 0.150); however, in the intervention group, it was significantly lower than controls after six, eight, and ten weeks of the intervention (P value = 0.023). Overall evaluation of the quality of life in patients indicated significantly higher quality of life in the Duloxetine group than the control group from the eighth week to the twelfth week after the intervention (P value <0.038). Anxiety and stress in the Duloxetine group were significantly lower than controls after the intervention (P value <0.05).

Conclusion: Duloxetine is probably helpful for reducing anxiety, stress, and the severity of symptoms in IBS patients. It also could increase the quality of life in patients.

Keywords: Anxiety; duloxetine; irritable bowel syndrome; quality of life; stress.