Lf-rTMS Attenuates Visceral Pain in Irritable Bowel Syndrome With Diarrhea

Objectives: To identify a central hub of visceral pain in IBS-D and elucidate the mechanism by which repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) confers analgesic effects.

Methods: A total of 42 IBS-D patients were recruited and randomly assigned (1:1) to the sham rTMS or the rTMS group. A nested cohort of 21 IBS-D participants who completed baseline fMRI assessments prior to randomization was included. Consistent with the randomization procedure，these individuals were evenly distributed between the two groups. Both participants and outcome assessors remained blinded to treatment allocation throughout the study. All patients completed the two-week intervention and were included in the final analysis.