A new study published in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition investigated the long-term efficacy of polyethylene glycol (PEG) in the maintenance therapy of childhood functional constipation (FC). This was a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial including 102 children, 2-16 years of age, with functional constipation diagnosed according to the Rome III criteria who received either maintenance treatment with PEG or placebo, for 24 weeks. Those who had treatment failure were switched over to conventional therapy. The results showed that a 67% patients in the PEG group were successfully treated after 24 weeks of therapy, as compared to only 36% in the placebo group. While fewer children in the PEG group had to be transited to the conventional therapy. Two children in the PEG group who required conventional therapy were switched over after 13 and 27 days post PEG treatment. Whereas, time to shift to rescue medication was 27 days (range 3-64 days) in the placebo group. No serious adverse event related to the use of PEG was evident. Thus, it was inferred that long-term maintenance therapy with PEG is significantly more effective than placebo in preventing relapse of constipation symptoms in children with FC. It was recommended that maintenance treatment should be started after disimpaction.