Deep-phenotyping and personalized therapy of patients with irritable bowel syndrome (PIONEER-IBS)

Summary

This study examines a personalized therapy for patients with irritable bowel syndrome. 

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most common gastrointestinal disorders and affects about 5-11% of the adult population worldwide. Symptoms of IBS include recurrent abdominal pain associated with an alteration of bowel habits. The disease is understood as a disturbance of the "microbiota-gut-brain axis", including changes in pain perception, emotional perception or the microbiome. 

Therapeutic options for IBS range from the use of medication, to dietary measures, to specific psychotherapy manuals. To date, none of the therapies have made a breakthrough in IBS. This may be explained by differences in the patients with IBS, themselves. Research has shown that patients with IBS are a very diverse group, including differences in somatic and psychic patterns and their relationship. 

To address these differences, this study will test a personalized therapy. For this purpose, patients with IBS will be characterized according to their psycho-somatic profile and subsequently assigned to a therapy. The patients will receive either an optimal personalized therapy, a sub-optimal personalized therapy, or an enhanced standard treatment (i.e., a control). 

The primary aim of the study is to assess the feasibility of personalized therapy in the treatment of IBS. The secondary aim of the study is to gain an insight into the relative effectiveness of optimal personalized therapy.