Complementary and alternative medicines in irritable bowel syndrome: An integrative view

Table 3 Clinical trials on mechanical complementary and alternative medicines interventions for irritable bowel syndrome

Intervention	Study design	Sample size	Outcome	Ref.
Physical activity	Randomized study	75	Significant decrease in IBS-SSS between physical activity and placebo group (P = 0.003)	[133]
Reflexology	Randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled study	34	No significant difference between foot reflexology and non-reflexology massage group	[134]
Acupuncture	Randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled study	230	Acupuncture and sham acupuncture significantly improved IBS-GIS scores compared to waitlist group (P = 0.001), no difference between acupuncture and sham acupuncture during 3 wk intervention	[143]
Acupuncture	Randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled study	43	Significant improvements (P = 0.022) in quality of life for both acupuncture and sham acupuncture compared to baseline after 10 intervention sessions (5 wk), no differences between acupuncture and sham acupuncture	[144]
Acupuncture/ moxibustion	Randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled study	29	Significant reduction in IBS-SSS in acupuncture/moxibustion group after 4 wk compared to sham acupuncture/moxibustion group (P = 0.01)	[146]
Yoga	Observational pilot study (adolescents)	20	Decrease in pain frequency (P = 0.031 for 8-11 yr old and P = 0.004 for 12-18 yr old) and pain intensity (P = 0.015 in 8-11 yr old) after 10 yoga sessions compared to baseline, decrease in pain frequency was maintained for 3 mo following intervention (P = 0.004 for 8-11 yr old)	[149]

IBS: Irritable bowel syndrome; GIS: Global improvement scores; SSS: Symptom severity scale.