A Personalized Approach to Abdominal Pain in Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Brief Summary

Apart from its use to provide insight in IBS disease courses and in clinical research, ESM can provide patients with feedback about individual triggers of their symptoms, and thereby function as part of a personalized therapeutic strategy. This is also true for IBD-IBS. Treatment strategies in IBS and IBD-IBS are largely based on reassurance, identification and elimination of triggering factors, and in more severe cases pharmaco- and psychotherapy. The ESM approach has the potential to increase therapeutic efficacy in IBS and IBD-IBS and will assist patients in disease self-management. The Traqq application can provide more detailed information about the dietary pattern of IBS and IBD-IBS patients. Traqq in combination with ESM will give an overview of abdominal pain and associated symptoms and psychosocial factors are exposed to during the day. The insight provided using ESM and Traqq may improve patient understanding of their personal symptom dynamics and triggers, as well as the physician's insight into the symptom patters of the specific patients, which may aid treatment choice and eventually improve the outcome of any treatment provided in daily clinical care.