Abstract: Objective To observe the short-term and medium-term clinical effect of the therapy of liver dispersing with spleen strengthening on irritable bowel syndrome dominated by diarrhea(IBS-D). Methods One hundred and seven patients with IBS-D were divided randomly into 2 groups, 53 of them were treated with the decoction of liver dispersing with spleen strengthening(herb group), and the other 54 were treated with Pinaverium Bromide(Pinaverium Bromide group). The course of treatment was 4 weeks, and there was a 3-month follow-up. The scores of symptoms and IBS-quality of life(QOL) were recorded twice in every 2 weeks, and 1st and 3rd month after treatment. Results 1) After the 4 weeks treatment, the total effective rate on symptoms of the herb group was 90.6%,while the Pinaverium Bromide group was 70.4%(P<0.05). Also, the former had better effect on the frequency of defecation and characters of stool(P<0.05). 2) As the improvement in the scores of symptom, the herb group had better effect than Pinaverium Bromide group(P<0.05) at the 1^st and 3^rd month follow-ups. 3) According to IBS-QOL, the herb group significantly improved the patients' quality of life, which was better than Pinaverium Bromide group at the 4^th week(P<0.05), and the effect sustained to the 3^rd month. Conclusion The therapy of liver dispersing with spleen strengthening on IBS-D had predominant effect in short-term and medium-term, and improved the quality of life, which lasted till the 3^rd month.

Key words: irritable bowel syndrome, diarrhea predominant, the therapy of liver dispersing with spleen strengthening