··········································································································································································· 152 2014 July; 3 (7): 152-156 ISSN 2322-3308 http://www.journalbio.com Received: 02 May 2014 • Accepted: 18 June 2014 Short.C doi:10.15412/JBTW.xxxx Study of the Effect of Probiotic Saccharomyces Boulardii on the Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome Mohsen Akhondi-Meybodi 1 , Masoud Rahimian 2 , Hasan Salmanroghani 1 , MohammadKazem Amirbeigy 3 , Mahmoud Baghbanian 4 , Seyd Yaser Ghelmani 5* 1 Associated professor of Gastroenterology, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Yazd, Iran 2 Assistant professor of Pulmonary and Critical care medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Ser- vices, Yazd, Iran 3 Assistant professor of Gastroenterology, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Yazd, Iran 4 Assistant professor, Gastroenterology, Research center of pancreatobiliary disease, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sci- ences, Yazd, Iran 5 Resident of gastroenterology, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Yazd, Iran *correspondence should be addressed to Seyd Yaser Ghelman, Resident of gastroenterology, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Yazd, Iran; Tell: +989125238156 ; Fax: +98; Email: yaserghelmani@ssu.ac.ir. ABSTRACT Irritable bowel syndrome is the most common diagnosed gastroenteric disorder incriminated for 12% of cases of referring to gastroenterologists. Various studies have shown that the intestinal microflora of the patients affected with IBS undergoes some changes. So, it seems that the recovery of intestinal flora is a useful therapeutic approach. This study investigated the effect of probiotic Saccharomyces Boulardii on improving the symptoms of IBS. This study was a randomized double-blind clinical trial conducted on 60 IBS patients. The patients were divided into two groups of 30 (case and control groups). The patients in the case group received Yomogi and those in the control group received placebo. Demographic information and symptoms as abdominal pain, flatulence, diarrhea, constipation, gurgling, eructation (belching and burping), urgent defeca- tion, and release of gas from the anus (farting and fizzling) were collected before intervention and three weeks after initiation of treatment, and analyzed. 43.3% of the patients in the case group were male and 56.7% were female. Also, 40% of the pa- tients in the control group were male and 60% were female. A comparison of the mean scores of abdominal symptoms in the case group before and after intervention revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between before and after intervention values for pain severity (P=0.001), flatulence ((P=0.001), diarrhea (P=0.001), gurgling (P=0.001), eructa- tion (P=0.023), and gas release from the anus (P=0.001). Yet, there was no statistically significant difference before and af- ter intervention for symptoms of constipation (P=0.161), and urgent defecation (P=0.09). The consumption of Saccharomy- cesBoulardii reduces pain severity, flatulence, diarrhea, gurgling, eructation, and gas release from the anus in patients with IBS and improves life quality. Key words: Probiotic, Saccharomyces Boulardii, Irritable Bowel Syndrome Copyright © 2014 Mohsen Akhondi-Meybodi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. 1. INTRODUCTION rritable bowel syndrome is the most common diag- nosed gastrointestinal disorder incriminated for 12% of cases of patient presentation to gastroenterologists (1). This syndrome can directly or indirectly lead to increased health care expenses, this figure being estimated to be 30 million US dollars in America (2). Its prevalence is differ- ent among different countries. In some research conducted so far, the rate of incidence of IBS is said to be 10-15% on North America and 11.5% in Europe (3). Since there is no definite treatment for IBS, the current treatment modalities are more of a palliative and supportive nature (4, 5). Irrita- ble bowel syndrome is a functional intestinal disturbance which manifests itself with symptoms as abdominal pain or problem, or a change in intestinal habits in the absence of any structural disorder. Risk factors include the female gender (two or three times more prevalent), acute gastroin- testinal infections (e.g., campylobacter or salmonella), and psychological factors (5-7). Various studies have demon- strated that enteric microflora in patients with IBS sustain I