Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) - Is It All in Your Head?
Published by tummyblogger August 8th, 2007 in IBS therapy, Digesting InformationThe Problem
In traveling the web I occasionally come across someone with IBS who is struggling with the idea the Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is “all in your head.” Then too there are the 50 or so articles I’ve seen that say that hypnosis, or cognitive therapy, or yoga, or meditation, provide symptom relief in IBS.
The Studies
The idea that the illness is “all in my head” is bosh, from my retired psychologist perspective. The studies that show that meditation, yoga, hypnosis, or cognitive therapy, or biofeedback are a different story. Some of them are carefully done and well-controlled. They show that with coaching in the specific techniques mentioned, people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) are able to train themselves to control the symptomatology of IBS. I have no problem with that. These studies do not prove that IBS has a mental causation.
Misunderstanding the Studies
The following short item that I stumbled on in following Google leads is toxic and corrosive and damaging to people with IBS and those around them, who then assign blame of various kinds to people with IBS, and increase the pain and problems we face.
Psychological Treatment for IBS
by Will Meek
May 26, 2007
There is a growing belief that certain somatic problem like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are inherently tied to mental health problems; in the case of IBS, certain anxiety disorders. The CBC is reporting on research that has shown psychological treatments like psychotherapy and hypnosis are effective at reducing IBS symptoms. The article has an interesting conceptualization for consumers on how the mind-body interaction can take place and create something like IBS, and I hope that there is continued movement in this area since diet management alone may not get at the core, underlying problems.1
What are the problems with this brief article? Let me count the ways:
o “There is a growing belief”
+ who believes and exactly what do they believe and what does belief have to do with the science of psychology?
o “certain somatic problems like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)”
+ “Like” but not really? [emphasis in the quote is mine]–The author goes on to talk only about IBS, not as a real somatic problem but as something like a somatic [bodily] problem. Thus the points that follow don’t apply directly, do they?
o “The CBC is reporting some research”
+ What is the CBC? At a minimum, establish why we might believe their reporting of research.
o The author tells us what the research shows: “psychological treatments like psychotherapy and hypnosis are effective at reducing IBS symptoms.”
+ Yes, that’s pretty well established. We know that many small studies show such effects. We don’t know about the other small studies that showed no effect, and we don’t know how the people with IBs and the control group(s) were selected.
o The author describes something in the article but doesn’t show it or link to it, only uses it to prove a point.
+ How does it prove anything if we don’t have the data?
o Finally, the author states that “diet management alone may not get at the core, underlying problems.”
He or she has jumped to a planned conclusion that IBS is a somatic problem that represents deep underlying psychological disturbance and requires treatment.
Summary of the Debunking
Nothing in the “proofs” brought by this author establish his or her conclusion. It is the result of backward thinking. The psychological treatments listed do not treat people who are diagnosed with mental illness, and somatic problems are not diagnosed in connection with mental illness.
Closing
If you have IBS and something is bothering you psychologically, then see a professional–a psychologist, psychiatrist, or clinical social worker–and work on what troubles you . If you have IBS and are managing a self-help regimen of diet, fiber, probiotic, and perhaps one of the above listed therapies, I suspect you are no more abnormal than most of the working people of the world.
2 Responses to “Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) - Is It All in Your Head?”
Leave a Reply
You must log in to post a comment.
I just came across an article which asks almost the same question, unfortunately. I think, though, that the question in the headline comes from a headline writer who had the same muddly thnking as in my post above. The article itself does not draw the conclusion that IBS is all in your head. The author does ask us to think in terms of treating both the ways we deal with stress and our habits of eating and defecating.
Here’s the link to the article. What do you think or feel about what the author says–or what I said?
I came across another article in this vein. It’s here, at this link. What do you think? Is there a good case for jointly thinking about “head” issues and “tummy” issues?