Review article

Functional Disorders of the Gastrointestinal Tract: Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Ante Bilić
Dragan Jurčić
Mate Mihanović

Abstract

Functional bowel disorders are among the
most frequent diseases in medicine. Irritable bowel syndrome
accounts for 40% of all gastroenterology outpatient referrals.
Rome criteria can be used to diagnose irritable bowel syndrome
with confi dence if alarm features are absent. Key symptoms are
abdominal pain or discomfort often relieved by defecation and
associated with altered bowel frequency and consistency. There
are still no valuable diagnostic laboratory tests for irritable
bowel syndrome. Irritable bowel syndrome treatment consists
of psychological, dietary and pharmacological approaches.
Antispasmodics and antidepressants are among the most commonly
used drugs at present. There are several serotonergic
modulating agents to be used throughout the world.

Keywords

functional gastrointestinal disorders; irritable bowel syndrome; diarrhoea; constipation; treatment

Hrčak ID:

18834

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/18834

Publication date:

26.1.2006.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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