https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29100842 (paywalled) 2018 Jan;3(1):17-24. doi: 10.1016/S2468-1253(17)30338-2. Epub 2017 Nov 1. Faecal microbiota transplantation versus placebo for moderate-to-severe irritable bowel syndrome: a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, single-centre trial. This Danish article discusses the above study: https://videnskab.dk/krop-sundhed/n...brugt-til-behandling-af-irritabel-tarmsyndrom (Danish) Primarily the study is about fecal transplants for IBS. Results mixed. Short-term beneficial effects but few lasting effects. Best outcomes for patients with only IBS and no comorbidities. But one interesting point is made for ME: patients with IBS and with comorbidities “like fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome ME/CFS or depression, often experienced little or no effect above placebo”.
The full paper conveniently tries to palm those treatment failures off as their IBS being psychosomatic.
Those findings are the opposite of the Borody study, which found that fecal transplant only works for ME/CFS patients who had comorbid IBS, and did not work for ME/CFS patients without IBS.
But that doesn't completely contradict the newer study. It just shows that FMT helps IBS, or IBS co-morbid with ME, but not ME alone. The first study says FMT helps IBS but not ME with IBS. They both agree on 'pure' IBS or ME, it's only where the two conditions apparently coexist that they disagree. Which suggests to me that maybe not all ME 'IBS' is the same thing as regular IBS.
So why is IBS called 'psychological' if fecal transplants help? Wouldn't this point to deranged microbiota or whatever? And, I wonder, were people with IBS checked for MCAS? Would this influence the result?
