Hypnotherapy for IBD patients with IBS-like symptoms

INTERVENTION: Either 6 sessions of gut‐directed hypnotherapy, or 6 sessions of standard medical treatment with supportive therapy. CONDITION: ; Irritable bowel syndrome, Inflammatory bowel disease ; ; PRIMARY OUTCOME: The number of patients with >50% reduction in IBS‐SSS pain score. SECONDARY OUTCOME: Secondary outcomes are the effects of therapy on total IBS‐SSS score, adequate relief, health related quality of life, IBD disease activity, health utility index, depression, anxiety, somatisation, abdominal pain related cognitions, absence of school or work, use of health care resources and additional costs, use of IBD medication, colonic sensitivity to distension, fecal protease activitiy and microbiota and the ability of patient's fecal supernatant to induce colonic hypersensitivity to distension in rats by colonic infusion. INCLUSION CRITERIA: Patients with inflammatory bowel disease and IBS‐like symptoms, age >11 years will be recruited. Patients have to be in remission of their inflammatory bowel disease as defined as no signs of inflammatory bowel disease, low inflammatory markers in laboratory tests and no disease activity on imaging studies of the intestine. IBS‐like symptoms are defined as abdominal pain for at least two months, fulfilling the pediatric or adult Rome‐III criteria for IBS.