of patient presentations at gastrointestinal clinics, and up to 50% or more of patients presenting with abdominal symptoms have no organic abnormality detected. The most common functional gastrointestinal conditions in Canada are irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and functional dyspepsia or nonulcer dyspepsia (NUD). Other functional disorders may affect specific regions of the alimentary tract, s...

43 INTRODUCTION Irritable bowel syndrome is a gastrointestinal disorder characterized by an alteration in bowel habit with abdominal pain in the absence of detectable structural disease (1). It is characterized by abdominal pain or discomfort in association with diarrhea, constipation, alternating diarrhea and constipation, or a mixture of these symptoms. It occurs in approximately 10%–20% of t...

BACKGROUND Untreated celiac disease has traditionally been linked to a greater risk for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, but the existing evidence is inconclusive. AIMS To compare the prevalence of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth in subjects with celiac disease compared with control subjects and patients with irritable bowel syndrome. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study included 15 u...

Fifteen patients with severe intractable irritable bowel syndrome previously reported as successfully treated with hypnotherapy, have now been followed up for a mean duration of 18 months. All patients remain in remission although two have experienced a single relapse overcome by an additional session of hypnotherapy. Experience with a further 35 patients is reported giving a total group of 50....

PURPOSE This study was designed to evaluate whether probiotics improve symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. METHODS PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched for studies that investigated the efficacy of probiotics in the management of irritable bowel syndrome. Clinical improvement was the key outcome of interest. D...

Irritable bowel syndrome is a disorder of the gastrointestinal tract with unknown etiology. Recent clinical data support a link between changes in fecal microbiota with decreased biodiversity and the development of irritable bowel syndrome. Whether these changes of the microbiota are caused by the disease or whether they develop during the course of the disease remains unclear. Several studies ...