Short Description or Definition
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is characterized by chronic abdominal pain or discomfort and altered bowel habits. In the absence of detectable organic causes, IBS is referred to as a functional disorder, which is defined by symptom-based criteria known as the “Rome criteria” (Longstreth et al. 2006).
Categorization
Symptom onset must occur at least 6 months before diagnosis.
On the basis of predominant bowel habit, IBS is categorized into three subgroups:
- 1.
IBS with diarrhea
- 2.
IBS with constipation
- 3.
IBS with mixed bowel habits
Epidemiology
IBS is one of the most common syndromes seen by gastroenterologists and primary care providers, with a prevalence rate of 10–15% in industrialized countries (Drossman et al. 2002). Despite its relatively high prevalence rate, only about 10–30% of afflicted individuals seek medical care (Pae et al. 2007). Women are affected about twice as often as men in most population-based samples (Whitehead et al. 2002), and...
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Dattilo, N. (2018). Irritable Bowel Syndrome. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_2079
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_2079
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