SynthesisPloS one2015
Efficacy and Safety of Antidepressants for the Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 103 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: Plant-Based Therapy for Irritable Bowel Syndrome.Phytotherapy research : PTR · 2026Pooled it
- A Clinical Practice Update for the Management of Patients With Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction and Altered Food Intake Behavior.Neurogastroenterology and motility · 2026Guideline
- The application of esketamine in cancer-related depressive states: attention from mechanisms to clinical translation.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Acupuncture for emotional symptoms in patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A meta-analysis and systematic review of the comorbidity between irritable bowel syndrome and bipolar disorder.Medicine · 2016Pooled it
- Similar Symptoms, Distinct Syndromes: Multi-modal Approach to the Patient with an IBD-IBS Overlap.Digestive diseases and sciences · 2026Review
- Imaging findings of irritable bowel syndrome patients, and the diagnostic value of irritable bowel syndrome: A systematic review.World journal of methodology · 2025Article
- Drug Survival of Drugs Recommended for Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Retrospective Observational Study.Neurogastroenterology and motility · 2025Observational
- Multiple Aspects of Irritable Bowel Syndrome and the Role of the Immune System: An Overview of Systematic Reviews with a Focus on Polyphenols.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Article
- Article
- Clinical outcomes associated with antidepressant use in inflammatory bowel disease patients and a matched control cohort.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Irritable bowel syndrome: Epidemiology, overlap disorders, pathophysiology and treatment.World journal of gastroenterology · 2023Review
- Effects of Duloxetine on Gastrointestinal Symptoms, Depression, Anxiety, Stress, and Quality of Life in Patients with the Moderate-to-Severe Irritable Bowel Syndrome.Advanced biomedical research · 2023Article
- Interactions between symptoms and psychological status in irritable bowel syndrome: An exploratory study of the impact of a probiotic combination.Neurogastroenterology and motility · 2023Article
- Current perspectives on irritable bowel syndrome: a narrative review.The Journal of international medical research · 2022Review
- Review
- Evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for irritable bowel syndrome 2020.Journal of gastroenterology · 2021Article
- Shortcomings of Trials Assessing Antidepressants in the Management of Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Critical Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimThe aim of this meta-analysis was to analyze the efficacy and safety of antidepressants for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome.
methodsWe searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus and The Cochrane Library for randomized controlled trials investigating the efficacy and safety of antidepressants in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome. Article quality was evaluated by Jadad score. RevMan 5.0 and Stata 12.0 were used for the meta-analysis.
resultsTwelve randomized controlled trials were included in this study and most of these trials were of high quality (Jadad score ≥4). Five articles focused on tricyclic antidepressants, six articles involved selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and one article investigated both types of treatment. The pooled risk ratio showed antidepressant treatment can improve global symptoms (RR = 1.38, 95% CI 1.08, 1.77). In the subgroup analysis, treatment with tricyclic antidepressants showed an improvement in global symptoms (RR = 1.36, 95% CI 1.07, 1.71), while treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors showed no statistically significant difference in global symptoms compared with the control groups (RR = 1.38, 95% CI 0.83, 2.28). The pooled risk ratio of dropout due to side effects following antidepressant treatment was 1.71 with 95% CI (0.98, 2.99). The subgroup analysis showed the pooled risk ratio of dropout in the tricyclic antidepressants group was 1.92 with 95% CI (0.89, 4.17). In the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors group, the pooled risk ratio of dropout was 1.5 with 95% CI (0.67, 3.37). Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors showed no benefit in alleviating abdominal pain and improving quality of life. There was no difference in the incidence of common adverse events between treatment and control groups.
conclusionsTCAs can improve global symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, while there was no strong evidence to confirm the effectiveness of SSRIs for the treatment of IBS.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.