The effect of curcumin capsule on quality of life and symptoms of patients with irritable bowel syndrome: a double blind clinical trial

Improving the quality of life of patients is the main goal of therapeutic interventions in chronic diseases. One way to achieve this is to decrease the severity of symptoms. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of curcumin capsule on quality of life and symptoms of patients with irritable bowel.

This clinical trial study was performed on 60 patients with irritable bowel syndrome referred to Amir al-Momenin Hospital in Arak city from April to September 2018, using convenience sampling and Extra-intestinal symptoms severity scale and WHOQOL_BREF tools. The patients were divided into two groups of intervention and control, curcumin capsules were used in the first one, and in the second one, placebo capsules were used twice a day after lunch and dinner for four weeks. All patients were examined at the beginning of the study, the fourth week and three months later, in terms of quality of life, severity and frequency of symptoms and possible complications. During this period, the patients were followed up on a monthly basis through phone calls, and the contact number of the researcher was provided to the patients to call in case of any problems or questions.

The average age of the curcumin group was 35 years and for the placebo group was 36.43 years. There was no significant difference in the quality of life between the curcumin and placebo groups after the intervention (P>0.05). Significant were found between the curcumin and placebo groups after the intervention (P<0.05).

The results of this study showed that there was a significant difference between curcumin and placebo in improving the clinical symptoms of patients, but the quality of life of patients in both curcumin and placebo groups did not change significantly after the intervention.