Users of the Nerva app saw their IBS symptoms decrease in severity, however, the trial didn’t compare the app’s efficacy against standard treatments
A smartphone app may help to ease symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome
Shutterstock/SFIO CRACHO
Using a hypnotherapy-based app may ease irritable bowel syndrome. Nerva, which is available to download, guides users through a 10-minute, gut-related hypnotherapy session every day for six weeks.
“We were really impressed by the degree of improvement,” says Simone Peters at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, who led Nerva’s development. “[The app] works better than any drug we have for these patients and there are no side effects.”
In the UK alone, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) affects around …