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Review
. 2022 Aug 4;14(8):e27691.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.27691. eCollection 2022 Aug.

A Systematic Review on the Efficacy and Safety of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors in Gastrointestinal Motility Disorders: More Control, Less Risk

Maitri V Acharekar  1 , Sara E Guerrero Saldivia  2 , Sumedha Unnikrishnan  1 , Yeny Y Chavarria  1 , Adebisi O Akindele  3 , Ana P Jalkh  4 , Aziza K Eastmond  1 , Chaitra Shetty  5 , Syed Muhammad Hannan A Rizvi  3 , Joudi Sharaf  6 , Kerry-Ann D Williams  7 , Maha Tariq  8 , Prachi Balani  9   1
Affiliations
Review

A Systematic Review on the Efficacy and Safety of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors in Gastrointestinal Motility Disorders: More Control, Less Risk

Maitri V Acharekar et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Gastrointestinal motility disorders have been thought to occur due to an imbalance in the interaction of the gut-brain axis, which is regulated by serotonin. This recent discovery can be exploited to find newer therapeutic agents such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors for functional gastrointestinal disorders. PubMed, PubMed Central (PMC), and Medline databases were used to obtain the data. Meta-analyses, systematic reviews, randomized control trials, and reviews were included and analyzed in the data. Of the 19240 studies, 23 were extracted, and after appropriate quality assessment, they were utilized in this systematic review. They included two meta-analyses, four systematic reviews, two randomized control trials, and 15 review articles. The systematic review focuses on the efficacy of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) as compared to other treatment modalities for disorders of gut-brain interaction. It explores various studies analyzing SSRIs for their mechanism of action, their desirable effects for treating irritable bowel syndrome, and their tolerability in patients. SSRIs are effective and safe in treating overall symptoms of gastrointestinal motility disorders, particularly constipation-predominant disorders. They seem to have a better side effect profile than other drugs. This should encourage physicians to prescribe SSRIs early on in the disease.

Keywords: gastrointestinal motility disorders; gut-brain axis; irritable bowel syndrome; serotonin; ssri.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. PRISMA flowchart 2020 - data extraction process
PMC - PubMed Central, GI - gastrointestinal
Figure 2
Figure 2. Biosynthesis of serotonin
Figure 3
Figure 3. Gut-brain axis
Illustration by author
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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