Conditions: Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Keywords: IBS irritable bowel syndrome irritable bowel
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 15
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
We hypothesize that duloxetine treatment will be associated with improvement in symptoms of IBS, particularly abdominal pain, in individuals without comorbid major depressive disorder.

During this 12-week, open-label, outpatient study, male and female subjects between the ages of 18 and 65 years who have been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) will be treated with open-label duloxetine.

Detailed description:
IBS is a chronic gastrointestinal disorder characterized by abdominal pain, altered bowel habits, and abdominal bloating for which no organic cause can be determined. Duloxetine has demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of depression as well as in several pain syndromes including diabetic peripheral neuropathy and fibromyalgia. We hypothesize that it will be a safe and efficacious treatment for the symptoms of IBS, in particular abdominal pain.

We plan to study 15 male and female subjects between the ages of 18 and 65 years who have had gastrointestinal symptoms at least 2 days/week for greater than six months and who have been diagnosed with IBS by a physician. During the 12-week study, subjects will receive open-label duloxetine titrated up to 60mg/day. Subjects will be asked to complete a total of ten study visits during the 12-week study period. All study visits will be conducted at McLean Hospital.

Arms:
arm 1: 12-week, open-label trial of duloxetine in subjects with IBS.

Interventions: intervention 1: duloxetine
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 30mg oral duloxetine per day for one week, titrated up to 60mg per day at day 8, concluded by a one week taper period of 4 days of 30mg pills at the conclusion of the study, followed by 3 days on no medication (4+3 days=1 week), concluded with a post-taper follow-up appointment with a study physician.

Protocol document: