IBS: Hypnotherapy or a Low-FODMAP Diet?What Trials Show
Bloating & DigestionArticleThe low-FODMAP diet is the best-known diet for IBS, but it's restrictive. In an Australian trial of 74 people, gut-directed hypnotherapy relieved gut symptoms as well as the diet, with about 71 to 72% improving in each group, and only hypnotherapy eased anxiety and low mood. A Dutch trial of 354 people found group hypnotherapy worked about as well as one-to-one sessions. Here is what the studies show.
If you have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), you’ve probably heard of the low-FODMAP diet. Fewer people hear that a talking treatment, gut-directed hypnotherapy, has gone head to head with it.
The head-to-head trial
In Melbourne, 74 people with IBS were randomly assigned to hypnotherapy, the low-FODMAP diet, or both.1
| Group | Meaningful improvement at 6 weeks | Still improved at 6 months |
|---|---|---|
| Hypnotherapy | 72%1 | 74%1 |
| Low-FODMAP diet | 71%1 | 82%1 |
| Both | 72%1 | 54%1 |
- Gut symptoms improved about equally in all three groups.1
- Only hypnotherapy improved anxiety and low mood scores.1
- Doing both added no extra benefit.1
The trial was small and had no placebo group, so it can’t name a winner. It shows two very different routes reaching a similar place.
Does it have to be one-to-one?
A larger trial in 11 Dutch hospitals gave 354 people six sessions of individual hypnotherapy, group hypnotherapy, or group education.2
| Group | Adequate relief at 3 months | At 12 months |
|---|---|---|
| Individual hypnotherapy | 41%2 | 41%2 |
| Group hypnotherapy | 33%2 | 50%2 |
| Education only | 17%2 | 23%2 |
The authors said hypnotherapy should be considered for IBS, and that group sessions could treat many more people for the same cost.2
Which to try?
- If your food list keeps shrinking, or you’re tired of reading labels, hypnotherapy is an option that doesn’t touch your plate.1
- If worry or low mood is part of your IBS, hypnotherapy helped those too in the Melbourne trial.1
- One change at a time: combining them didn’t add benefit.1
See also CBT for IBS by phone or online, an IBS hypnotherapy referral and what IBS is.
Try: “I’ve tried the low-FODMAP diet and it’s hard to keep up. Is gut-directed hypnotherapy available to me, individually or in a group?”
Bloated by Dinner covers this in Chapter 10, “Gut Feelings,” in a section called “Diet or Hypnosis?” Its Belly Clock tracks symptoms by the hour, so you can judge whichever route you choose over the weeks that follow. See the book.
This article is for general educational purposes only and is not medical advice. It isn't a substitute for diagnosis or treatment from a qualified healthcare professional who knows your health history. Get an IBS diagnosis from a doctor before treating it yourself. See a doctor for blood in your stool, weight loss, symptoms that wake you at night, new symptoms after 50, or a family history of bowel cancer, celiac disease or inflammatory bowel disease. Girl Playbook does not endorse any specific product, test, or provider.
Girl Playbook sells this book. It provides education and worksheets, not individualized medical care.
Sources
The research behind this article, in the order it’s cited. How we source our articles.
- Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics (abstract via PubMed), 2016Randomised clinical trial: the efficacy of gut-directed hypnotherapy is similar to that of the low FODMAP diet for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (opens in a new tab)abcdefghijklm
- Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology (abstract via PubMed), 2019Efficacy of individual and group hypnotherapy in irritable bowel syndrome (IMAGINE): a multicentre randomised controlled trial (opens in a new tab)abcdefgh
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