Eluxadoline May Improve Abdominal Pain in Irritable Bowel Syndrome With Diarrhea

Man holding stomach
Man holding stomach
For patients with irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea who had an inadequate response to loperamide, eluxadoline may effectively reduce abdominal pain over a 12-week period.

The following article is part of conference coverage from the PAINWeek 2018 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Clinical Pain Advisor’s staff will be reporting breaking news associated with research conducted by leading experts in pain medicine. Check back for the latest news from PAINWeek 2018.

LAS VEGAS —For patients with irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D) who had an inadequate response to loperamide, eluxadoline may effectively reduce abdominal pain over a 12-week period, according to a study presented during the 2018 PAINWeek conference, held September 4-8.

The study included 346 participants with IBS-D who had inadequate symptom control with loperamide in the previous 12 months. Participants were randomly assigned to receive oral eluxadoline 100 mg twice daily (n=172) or placebo (n=174) for 12 weeks. Participants recorded their IBS-D symptoms in a daily electronic diary, including worst abdominal pain using a 0 to 10 scale and stool consistency. The study’s primary end point was a composite response based on simultaneous daily improvement of worst abdominal pain and stool consistency for ≥50% of days from weeks 1 to 12 compared with baseline measures.

In the treatment group, 43.6% of participants had ≥40% improvement at week 12 compared with 31.0% in the placebo group (P <.02). The treatment group also had a higher percentage of participants who achieved both ≥30% and ≥50% improvement (50.6% and 35.5%, respectively) compared with the placebo group (37.4% and 23.6% respectively; P <.05 for both). The treatment group had a greater average change from baseline in worst abdominal pain score (-3.09) compared with the placebo group (-2.51) at week 12. “This suggests that eluxadoline is effective for treating the abdominal pain component of IBS-D in patients who previously reported an inadequate response to loperamide,” concluded the study authors.

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Reference

Brenner DM, Gutman C, Elmes S, Cash BD. Effect of eluxadoline on abdominal pain in adults with irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea who report inadequate control of symptoms with previous use of loperamide. Presented at: PAINWeek 2018; September 4-8, 2018; Las Vegas, NV. Poster 17.

For more coverage of PAINWeek 2018, click here.