© 2003 by BMJ Publishing Group & British Society of Gastroenterology
COMMENTARY
Irritable bowel syndrome
Tegaserod and IBS: a perfect match?
Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. K2H 8C4; wgthompson@rogers.com
IBS patients require diagnosis, advice, and a reassuring doctor. For constipated patients who need it, tegaserod is safe and effective.
Keywords: irritable bowel syndrome; tegaserod; Asia-Pacific; double blind study
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Until recently, there existed little evidence that any therapy was effective for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The quality of clinical trials was poor,1,2 and no systematic review3,4 can redeem faulty data.5 Mindful of this, pharmaceutical companies now employ modern clinical trial principles to test IBS drugs. The latest of these efforts is an Asia-Pacific randomised controlled trial of tegaserod by Kellow et al, described in this issue of Gut6 [see page 671].6 To judge how well tegaserod matches the needs of IBS patients we must examine the trial methods, results, and conclusions, and divine what is missing from the reports.
The Asia-Pacific study is similar to Western IBS trials of tegaserod.7,8 These represent substantial improvements in trial methodology. The entered subjects had criteria defined IBS and most had a "non-diarrhoea" bowel habit suitable to the drug’s effects. Recruitment was sufficient to show definitive results,
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