SynthesisNutrients2022
Effectiveness and Safety of Probiotics for Patients with Constipation-Predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 10 Randomized Controlled Trials.
Synthesis in Nutrients, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 3 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
21 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effect of probiotics on the diarrhea and constipation outcomes in children: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Depression and lifestyle: Focusing on nutrition, exercise, and their possible relevance to molecular mechanisms.Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2023Pooled it
- Efficacy and Safety of Probiotics in Geriatric Patients with Constipation: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.The journal of nutrition, health & aging · 2023Pooled it
- Trial
- Probiotics in Irritable Bowel Syndrome: An Umbrella Review of 27 Systematic Reviews on Methodological Quality and Certainty of Evidence.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Strain-Specific Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis of Probiotics Efficacy in the Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Initiating multi-strain probiotics is associated with clinically meaningful symptom relief, better quality of life, and fewer treatment escalations in IBS-D/IBS-M: a Chinese real-world propensity-matched cohort study.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Protective Effect of Pediococcus pentosaceus Li05 on Constipation via TGR5/TPH1/5-HT Activation.Microbial biotechnology · 2025Article
- Gut-Microbiota-Derived Metabolites and Probiotic Strategies in Colorectal Cancer: Implications for Disease Modulation and Precision Therapy.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Impact of Microbiota on Irritable Bowel Syndrome Pathogenesis and Management: A Narrative Review.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Review
- Gut microbiota in irritable bowel syndrome: a narrative review of mechanisms and microbiome-based therapies.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Evaluation of the combined use of linaclotide and probiotics on clinical treatment efficacy and quality of life in patients with constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome.American journal of translational research · 2025Article
- The Role of Gut Microbiome in Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Implications for Clinical Therapeutics.Biomolecules · 2024Review
- Efficacy of Probiotics in the Management of Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Cureus · 2024Review
- Effect of Probiotics in Stress-Associated Constipation Model in Zebrafish (International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Fenchone Ameliorates Constipation-Predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome via Modulation of SCF/c-Kit Pathway and Gut Microbiota.Journal of microbiology and biotechnology · 2024Article
- Association between bowel movement disorders and depressive symptoms: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Gut microbiota and irritable bowel syndrome: status and prospect.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Review
- Gut Dysbiosis in Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Narrative Review on Correlation with Disease Subtypes and Novel Therapeutic Implications.Microorganisms · 2023Review
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of probiotics in the treatment of constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-C), we searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing probiotic care versus placebos for patients with IBS-C in five comprehensive databases (March 2022). The risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias Tool. RevMan 5.3 was used to perform a meta-analysis on stool consistency, abdominal pain, bloating, quality of life (QoL), fecal Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus counts, and adverse events. The GRADE approach was used to evaluate the certainty of the evidence. Ten RCTs involving 757 patients were included. Only three studies were rated as having a low risk of bias. The meta-analysis results show that, compared to the placebo, probiotics significantly improved stool consistency (MD = 0.72, 95% CI (0.18, 1.26), p < 0.05, low quality) and increased the number of fecal Bifidobacteria (MD = 1.75, 95% CI (1.51, 2.00), p < 0.05, low quality) and Lactobacillus (MD = 1.69, 95% CI (1.48, 1.89), p < 0.05, low quality), while no significant differences were found in abdominal pain scores, bloating scores, QoL scores, or the incidence of adverse events (p > 0.05). The low-to-very low certainty evidence suggests that probiotics might improve the stool consistency of patients with IBS-C and increase the number of Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli in feces with good safety. However, more high-quality studies with large samples are needed to verify the findings.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.