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©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Methodol. Mar 20, 2026; 16(1): 107908
Published online Mar 20, 2026. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v16.i1.107908
Published online Mar 20, 2026. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v16.i1.107908
Mirtazapine for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome: A systematic review
Raluca Prodan, Jonathan Soldera, Department of Gastroenterology, University of South Wales in association with Learna Ltd., Cardiff CF37 1DL, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Soldera J contributed to study supervision; Soldera J and Prodan L participated in the concept and design research, drafted the manuscript and contributed to data acquisition, analysis and interpretation; all authors contributed to critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest pertaining to the subject matter discussed in this paper.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jonathan Soldera, PhD, Tutor, Department of Gastroenterology, Uni
Received: March 31, 2025
Revised: May 20, 2025
Accepted: August 4, 2025
Published online: March 20, 2026
Processing time: 316 Days and 13.4 Hours
Revised: May 20, 2025
Accepted: August 4, 2025
Published online: March 20, 2026
Processing time: 316 Days and 13.4 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This study highlights the potential of mirtazapine in treating refractory irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), particularly diarrhea-predominant IBS with comorbid depression. By integrating a systematic review with a detailed case report, our findings demonstrate that mirtazapine, combined with Rifaximin, a low fermentable oligosaccharide, disaccharide, monosaccharide, and polyol diet, and probiotics, significantly improves patient outcomes. This work emphasizes the importance of thorough diagnostic evaluation in IBS and supports further randomized controlled trials to confirm mirtazapine's efficacy.