HCPLive: Navigating Progress, Personalization, and Persistent Gaps in IBS Care
HCPLive recently interviewed Ali Rezaie, MD, medical director of the GI Motility Program at Cedars-Sinai, about how the understanding and treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) has evolved from symptom control to more targeted, personalized management strategies.
IBS affects about 10% of U.S. adults and, while incurable, can be managed through diet, behavioral therapy and medication.
Rezaie, director of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology at the Medically Associated Science and Technology (MAST) Program at Cedars-Sinai, told HCPLive the field is shifting away from a one-size-fits-all approach to symptom treatment and toward therapies tailored to the biological drivers of each patient’s disease.
“Twenty or 30 years ago, we would empirically treat patients, mostly just targeting symptoms,” Rezaie told HCPLive. “Now, we recognize that IBS has multiple underlying pathophysiologies, and depending on the patient, we can tailor therapy more precisely.”
Rezaie told HCPLive research increasingly suggests “a subgroup of IBS patients has disease driven by the gut microbiome,” fueling interest in microbiome-targeted therapies.
Rezaie said that because IBS is a chronic condition often diagnosed when patients are in their 20s, 30s and 40s, it typically requires long-term management of fluctuating symptoms.
“If you start them on a medication,” he told HCPLive, “this is not necessarily a curable disease, so they might be on that medication for years or decades.”
A large real-world study led by Rezaie found that some commonly prescribed IBS medications, particularly antidepressants and certain antidiarrheals, may be associated with an increased long-term mortality risk, underscoring the importance of evaluating safety in a condition often treated for decades.
In a related interview with HCPLive, Rezaie noted that these research findings highlight the need for more informed patient discussions and for future IBS guidelines to better incorporate long-term safety data alongside symptom management.
Read the complete article from HCPLive.