Review article
Inflammatory and Functional Bowel Disorders: Somatic, Psychological and Social Features
Mladenka TKALČIĆ
orcid.org/0000-0002-5444-5377
; Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Rijeka
Goran HAUSER
; Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka, Rijeka
Abstract
Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, chronic inflammatory
bowel diseases, and irritable bowel syndrome, one of the most
frequent functional bowel disorders, were traditionally regarded
as separate entities. The former are considered organic
diseases with obvious signs of chronic bowel inflammation and
psychological factors as secondary to disease. The latter shows
that no visible structural abnormalities and symptoms occur as
a consequence of modified perception of gastrointestinal
function. However, fenotipic expression of these two groups of
diseases is overlapping, not only in common symptoms of
altered bowel habits connected with abdominal pain and
discomfort, but also in the fact that irritable bowel syndrome
has some signs of microscopic inflammation, while
inflammatory bowel diseases show inconsistency between
perception of disease severity and real disease activity. In the
last few years, some similarities in pathophysiological and
psychosocial features ot these diseases were highlighted.
According to the biopsychosocial model, inflammatory bowel
diseases and irritable bowel syndrome are products of the
interactions between altered gut physiology and psychosocial
factors, due to reciprocal brain-gut connections. The validity of
organic-functional distinction is discussed in this paper.
Keywords
inflammatory bowel disease; irritable bowel syndrome; biopsychosocial approach
Hrčak ID:
37112
URI
Publication date:
30.4.2009.
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