A new, big study from Cedars‑Sinai looked at the safety of medicines used for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The researchers found that some drugs may raise the chance of dying a little bit.
The study was published in Communications Medicine. It used almost 20 years of health records from more than 650,000 American adults who have IBS. This makes it the largest real‑world look at long‑term safety for these medicines.
What Is IBS and How Is It Treated?
IBS is a long‑lasting stomach problem. About one out of ten people in the U.S. have it. There is no cure, but people can feel better with diet changes, therapy, and medicines.
Which Medicines Show Higher Risks?
Scientists examined many treatments: FDA‑approved IBS drugs, antidepressants, antispasmodics, and opioid‑based anti‑diarrheal pills like loperamide and diphenoxylate.
They found that using antidepressants for a long time was linked to a 35% higher risk of death. Taking loperamide or diphenoxylate was linked to about double the risk compared with people who did not use these drugs.
What the Numbers Really Mean
These results do not prove that the medicines cause death. The higher risk might be because people taking them also have other serious health problems, such as heart issues, falls, or strokes.
Antidepressants are not officially approved for IBS, but doctors sometimes prescribe them to ease pain. The study showed that other common IBS medicines, including FDA‑approved drugs and antispasmodics, were not linked to a higher death risk.
Is the Risk Big for Each Person?
Even though the risk increase is real, the chance of any single person dying because of these drugs is still low.
"IBS patients should not panic, but they should understand the small but real risks when thinking about long‑term treatment," said Rezaie, director of bioinformatics at Cedars‑Sinai.
What Should Patients Do?
Doctors need to talk with patients about the safest options. More research is needed to confirm these findings and to find out who might be most vulnerable.
Rezaie suggests that future guidelines should focus on long‑term safety and on personalizing care. He advises looking for the cause of IBS symptoms and choosing the safest, evidence‑based treatments instead of relying on one type of drug for many years.