Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is partly psychological and can be controlled better through mental training than with mainstream drugs, a new trial shows.

Hope of better treatment is at hand for thousands of sufferers after the research found that even telephone and web-based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) had a major impact on symptoms.

The common gut condition affects up to 20 per cent of people and triggers abdominal pain, bloating and distressing altered bowel habits.

The causes of the disorder are unknown.

Standard treatments include antispasmodic drugs, laxatives and medicines that relieve diarrhoea.

The new trial, conducted by Southampton and King’s College London universities, suggest that the condition is significantly psychological in origin.

Doctors studied 558 serious IBS sufferers who were either put on a programme of CBT or received standard care.

The findings, reported in the journal Gut, showed that patients in the CBT group were more likely to have experienced significant improvement in their symptoms after a year.

The impact of IBS on their work and daily life was also significantly less than it was for those not receiving the psychological therapy.

CBT is a talking treatment that aims to help people overcome harmful behaviour and ways of thinking.