Effect of a multispecies probiotic supplement on quantity of irritable bowel syndrome-related intestinal microbial phylotypes.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Probiotics in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Probiotics can alleviate the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), possibly by stabilizing the intestinal microbiota.

Who Took Part

The study group was 42 subjects.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were young adults, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

The faecal microbiotas of 42 IBS subjects participating in a placebo-controlled double-blind multispecies probiotic intervention were analysed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Probiotics and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

As a double-blind Probiotics study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Probiotics could be set against what happens without it.

Eight bacterial targets within the gastrointestinal microbiota with a putative IBS association were measured.

What Was Measured

Probiotics can alleviate the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), possibly by stabilizing the intestinal microbiota.

The subject headings attached to it are Bacteria, DNA, Bacterial, Dietary Supplements, Feces, Intestines, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Polymerase Chain Reaction.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Probiotics in 42 subjects.

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2010 (BMC gastroenterology), a journal based in England.

More context: all human trials.