A recent Alberta Tools for Practice1 notes that approximately 60% of patients report overall symptom or abdominal pain "improvement" on antispasmodics (including peppermint oil), compared to ~30-50% on placebo, with numbers needed to treat of 3-8.
Compared to placebo, adverse events occur for an additional 1 in 20 with antispasmodics and 1 in 11 on peppermint oil.
The antispasmodics are hyoscine (the only one available in NZ), pinaverium, trimebutine, dicycloverine, and peppermint oil.
