Abstract

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional bowel disorder that causes emphysema in patients. Intestinal gases affect all parts of one's digestive system and cause a significant discomfort in him. Most synthetic drugs used to reduce the flatulence have side effects therefore greater attention is drawn towards the use of herbal medicines. Supermint oral drop is a new herbal medicine in Iran which belongs to the category of carminative drugs. Thus, this comparative study examines the effects of Dimethicone and Supermint drop on the reduction of flatulence in patients. In this study, which is a single-blind clinical trial, after applying the inclusion criteria, a number of 60 patients with IBS who referred to clinics of Amir-al-Momenin (A.S) Hospital and Imam Khomeini Hospital with flatulence complaint were selected using the target-based approach. The patients were divided randomly into two groups of A and B. The group A was treated with Dimethicone and the group B was treated with Supermint drop for a period of three weeks. The severity of symptoms were taken from the patients in 3 intervals (including at the time of admission, two weeks after the treatment and four weeks after the treatment (one week after discontinuation of the drug)) through VAS graph (Visual Analog Scale). Finally, the obtained data were analyzed by SPSS 18 software package and through using descriptive statistics tests, chi-square as well as Repeat Measurement test. The results of the study showed that the reduction of flatulence in patients using Dimethicone and Supermint within two weeks after taking the drugs had no significant difference (p = 0.4). However, the reduction of flatulence symptoms in the fourth week of drug use was greater in patients using Supermint (p = 0.02). Based on the present study, it seems that Supermint herbal products, due to the effects they have on reducing the amount of flatulence, can be used as an effective drug in the treatment of flatulence in patients with IBS.