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St John's wort is known to effectively treat patients with mild-to-moderate depression.
Antidepressants are frequently used to treat irritable bowel syndrome.
To date, no study that examines the efficacy of St John's wort in irritable bowel syndrome has been carried out.
Dr Yuri Saito and colleagues from the USA evaluated the efficacy of St John's wort in irritable bowel syndrome after 12 weeks.
The team performed a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 70 participants with an established diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome randomized to either St John's wort or placebo.
Both treatment arms were balanced on symptom subtype.
 | | 37% had diarrhea-irritable bowel syndrome | | American Journal of Gastroenterology |
The primary end point was self-reported overall bowel symptom score at 12 weeks.
Secondary end points were individual bowel symptom score for diarrhea, constipation, pain or discomfort, and bloating.
The research team also evaluated adequate relief of irritable bowel syndrome on at least 50% of the last 4 weeks of therapy, and irritable bowel syndrome quality-of-life score at 12 weeks.
The researchers reported that 86% of the participants were women, and the median age was 42 years.
Overall, 29% had constipation-irritable bowel syndrome, 37% had diarrhea-irritable bowel syndrome, and 31% had mixed irritable bowel syndrome.
Both groups reported decreases in overall bowel symptom score from baseline, with the placebo arm having significantly lower scores at 12 weeks compared with St John's wort.
These patterns of better than the St John's wort-treated group, with significant differences observed at week 12 for D-bowel symptom score, and percent with adequate relief.
A similar proportion of subjects in each treatment group believed that the study drug they received decreased irritable bowel syndrome life interferences.
Dr Saito's team concluded, “St John's wort was a less effective treatment for irritable bowel syndrome than placebo.”
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