Prognosis

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a benign condition and has an excellent long-term prognosis.

A prospective study regarding prognosis in IBS revealed (1):

• 85% of patients were rendered virtually symptom-free in the short term
• 68% were still virtually symptom-free 5 years later
• response to treatment was better in men than in women, in those with constipation than with diarrhoea, when the symptoms had initially been triggered by an episode of acute diarrhoea, and in patients with a relatively short history
• the authors noted that the response to treatment was considerably better than expected, possibly because of the more aggressive use of high-fibre diets and bulking agents

A more recent questionnaire based study (2) concluded that:

• less than 50% of both post-infective-IBS and non-infective IBS cases recover over six years

Reference:

1. Harvey RF et al (1987). Prognosis in the irritable bowel syndrome: a 5-year prospective study. Lancet;1(8539):963-5
2. Neal KR et al (2002). Prognosis in post-infective irritable bowel syndrome: a six year follow up study. Gut ;51(3):410-3