Introduction: Irritable bowel syndrome is the most common, costly, and disabling dysfunction of the gastrointestinal tract. Mental disorders can be one of the main factors in the onset, continuation, or exacerbation of gastrointestinal signs and symptoms in people with this syndrome. Commitment and acceptance therapy is a mixture of four approaches of awareness, acceptance, commitment, and beha...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Few therapies are of proven efficacy in irritable bowel syndrome. Thus, there is great interest in the development of a natural therapy that can be both safe and effective. An understanding that probiotics are heterogeneous, with multiple targets and mechanisms of action, is fundamental to the development of clinical trials. RECENT FINDINGS A bidirectional model for the path...

BACKGROUND We have shown that bran exacerbates irritable bowel syndrome symptoms in a large proportion of secondary-care patients. However, it is unknown if this also happens in primary-care or whether a better response to bran occurs, leading to bran failures being selected for referral to the specialist. AIMS To assess the response to bran in primary-care irritable bowel syndrome comparing ...

BACKGROUND Functional gastrointestinal disorders, including functional dyspepsia, irritable bowel syndrome and functional constipation are very common worldwide. OBJECTIVE This research aims to estimate the prevalence and associated factors involved in functional gastrointestinal disorders in Chinese college and university students using the Rome III criteria. METHODS A total of 5000 studen...

AIM To determine the prevalence, symptom pattern and impact of the irritable bowel syndrome, across eight European countries, using a standardized methodology. METHODS A community survey of 41 984 individuals was performed using quota sampling and random digit telephone dialing to identify those with diagnosed irritable bowel syndrome or those meeting diagnostic criteria, followed by in-depth...

The Eysenck Personality Inventory, the Middlesex Hospital questionnaire, and forearm blood-flow were used to measure aspects of psychological status in forty-one patients with the irritable bowel syndrome, who were compared in this respect with twenty-five matched psychoneurotic subjects and with a general population. The results show a positive association between psychoneurotic disorder and t...

Urodynamic studies were carried out on 30 patients with irritable bowel syndrome and 30 matched controls. Fifty per cent of the irritable bowel patients compared with only 13% of the control group had evidence of bladder dysfunction (p = 0.006). In the irritable bowel group detrusor instability was observed in 10 patients compared with only one control subject (p = 0.008). A steep cystometrogra...

Seventy-seven of 84 surviving patients in whom the irritable bowel syndrome had been diagnosed at least six years previously were reviewed. A different diagnosis was made in only four cases. Forty-four patients remained symptomatic and 29 patients had no further bowel problems. The irritable bowel syndrome is often a chronic, relapsing disorder, and further investigations are not necessary unle...

Irritable bowel syndrome is a disorder of gut-brain interaction that leads to a significant healthcare burden worldwide. A good physician-patient relationship is fundamental in managing patients who suffer from this poorly understood chronic disease. We highlight possible reasons for breakdown in communication between physicians and irritable bowel syndrome sufferers and suggest possible ways t...

This article describes the common association between chronic pelvic pain and irritable bowel syndrome. The aim of the diagnosis and management of chronic pelvic pain and irritable bowel syndrome is to improve the quality of life of the patient. Methods of diagnosis, treatment and overall management for these two challenging conditions are outlined in this article.