Irritable bowel syndrome symptom severity improves equally with probiotic and placebo

Figure 3 Irritable bowel syndrome symptom severity score over time. IBS-SSS is a 5-item composite score inquiring about the severity of abdominal pain, bloating/distension, satisfaction with bowel habits, and IBS-related quality of life on a 10-cm VAS scale and the number of days with abdominal pain over the past 10 d[18]. All items are scored from 0 to 100, allowing for IBS-SSSs to range from 0 to 500. Francis and colleagues have validated non-IBS controls and volunteers suffering from mild, moderate, and severe IBS symptoms to range between 0-75, 75-175, 175-300, and 300-500, respectively[18]. The composite symptom score declined similarly in all treatment groups during the intervention, showing no treatment effect for the active groups (low-dose and high-dose) receiving Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM. The severity scores are given as mean ± SD. Differences from baseline to week 12 were not significant between treatment groups. All within-group comparisons to baseline (week 4, week 12, and washout) were significant (P < 0.001). IBS-SSS: Irritable bowel syndrome symptom severity score; IBS: Irritable bowel syndrome.