Internal Medicine: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

Functional Diseases of the Digestive System: Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Ricardo C Barbuti and Joaquim Prado P de Moraes-Filho

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a very prevalent and high incident disease. As the great majority of functional diseases, it is female predominant and leads to serious damage to the quality of life. Its pathophysiology is complex, which pushes the specialists to study it even more deeply, in order to find the most suitable way to diagnose and treat it. Depending of the clinical presentation, different drugs can be used, although we are still missing the magic bullet to relieve our patient’s complaints. This paper reviews the newest insights regarding IBS, covering its diagnosis, epidemiology and treatments, focusing specially the clinical practice.