Table 1.

Modern treatments for IBS.

Type of treatment	Concrete method	Effect	References
Medicines	rifaximin	2 weeks of treatment provides significant relief from IBS symptoms, bloating, abdominal pain and loose or watery stools	97
	loperamide	For first-line treatment of IBS-D diarrhea	98
	Bile acid sequestrants	Improves stool consistency and reduces bowel movement frequency	99
	antispasmodic	It is very effective for abdominal pain in patients with IBS, but can lead to more adverse effects such as dry mouth, vertigo, and constipation	100
	peppermint oil	Superior to placebo in the treatment of IBS, but adverse events are more frequent and the quality of evidence is very low	101
	antidepressant	Antidepressant medications provide better relief for IBS. However, there are limitations in the information, so estimates of efficacy may be overestimated	102
	pregabalin	In patients with allergic IBS, it can significantly increase their rectal sensory threshold to a dilated state	103
Diet	FODMAP diet	Effective for many patients, but not for all due to complexity of operation	104–106
	Increased Dietary Fiber	The clinical symptoms of IBS were only marginally improved and the beneficial effects were limited to psyllium seeds, while bran had no significant effect on them	107
	Gluten-free Diet (GFD)	GFD was associated with overall symptom improvement compared with controls, but there was insufficient evidence to confirm that GFD improved IBS symptoms	108
Gut microbiota	probiotics	Reduces pain and symptom severity scores	109,110
	Synergistic combination of prebiotics and probiotics (called synbiotics)	Beneficial for overall IBS symptoms and abdominal pain, but unable to draw definitive conclusions about its efficacy	111,112
	Fecal microbiota transplantation	Recommended for the treatment of recurrent C. difficile infections accompanying IBD, but very time-consuming and labor-intensive	113–116
complementary alternative therapy	hypnotherapy	Applications are limited by considerable cost and long duration as well as adverse patient and clinician restrictions	117,118
	acupuncture	It may be possible to improve intestinal motility and visceral sensitivity to IBS treatment by modulating brain gut peptide levels in the central nervous system, intestines, and blood. However, the reasons for the effectiveness of acupuncture treatment still need to be further explored	119–123
Psychotherapeutic Approaches	cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)	Patients with IBS develop positive clinical symptoms after treatment, which may be related to their brain network function, altered structural connectivity, and altered gut microbiome. However, there is a lack of reference for evaluating microbiome persistence and neuroanatomical alterations in CBT-responsive populations	124