Irritable bowel syndrome

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(98)08320-2.pdf

Functional somatic syndromes: one or many?

https://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(02)80189-5/pdf

Systematic review of the comorbidity of irritable bowel syndrome with other disorders: what are the causes and implications?

Basic and clinical aspects of visceral hyperalgesia

Background: IBS affects 5–11% of the population of most countries. Prevalence peaks in the third and fourth decades, with a female predominance. Aim: To provide a guide for the assessment and management of adult patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Methods: Members of the Clinical Services Committee of The British Society of Gastroenterology were allocated particular areas to produce review documents. Literature searching included systematic searches using electronic databases such as Pubmed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases and extensive personal reference databases. Results: Patients can usefully be classified by predominant bowel habit. Few investigations are needed except when diarrhoea is a prominent feature. Alarm features may warrant further investigation. Adverse psychological features and somatisation are often present. Ascertaining the patients’ concerns and explaining symptoms in simple terms improves outcome. IBS is a heterogeneous condition with a range of treatments, each of which benefits a small proportion of patients. Treatment of associated anxiety and depression often improves bowel and other symptoms. Randomised placebo controlled trials show benefit as follows: cognitive behavioural therapy and psychodynamic interpersonal therapy improve coping; hypnotherapy benefits global symptoms in otherwise refractory patients; antispasmodics and tricyclic antidepressants improve pain; ispaghula improves pain and bowel habit; 5-HT 3 antagonists improve global symptoms, diarrhoea, and pain but may rarely cause unexplained colitis; 5-HT 4 agonists improve global symptoms, constipation, and bloating; selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors improve global symptoms. Conclusions: Better ways of identifying which patients will respond to specific treatments are urgently needed.

/pdf/guidelines-on-the-irritable-bowel-syndrome-mechanisms-and-4ocgopleq5.pdf

Guidelines on the irritable bowel syndrome: mechanisms and practical management

In 100 patients with irritable bowel syndrome a wide variety of non-gastrointestinal symptoms were significantly more common than in a group of 100 age, sex, and social class matched controls. Nocturia, frequency and urgency of micturition, incomplete bladder emptying, back pain, an unpleasant taste in the mouth, a constant feeling of tiredness and in women dyspareunia were particularly prominent (p less than 0.001). With reference to non-colonic gastrointestinal symptoms nausea, vomiting, dysphagia and early satiety were very common (p less than 0.0001). This symptom diversity was observed irrespective of whether the patient had a psychiatric disorder or not. Patients smoked more than controls (p = 0.02) drank more caffeine containing drinks (p = 0.03) and 26% had taken at least one week off work in the previous 12 months. Thirty three per cent of patients had a family history of irritable bowel syndrome. Cognisance of these diverse symptoms may prevent referral to the wrong medical specialty and inappropriate investigation. They may also be indicative of a much more diffuse disorder of smooth muscle than has previously been appreciated.

https://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/27/1/37.full.pdf

C T Roberts

Papers

Non-colonic features of irritable bowel syndrome.

Alimentary tract andpancreas Non-colonic features ofirritable bowel syndrome