Irritable Bowel Syndrome Found to Be Underdiagnosed
Symptoms of IBS have been present for quite a long time, but it seems that national attention to the syndrome has been increasing over the past 2 years. Some may say that that is because there is a new drug out to treat IBS. Of course, it’s not very effective and has caused some deaths…
(article) Patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) have a significantly lower quality of life than patients without IBS, according to researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. The research findings were released at the 65th Annual Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) in New York City. The data indicate that primary care physicians underdiagnose IBS. “We were somewhat surprised to learn that of the 94 patients who met the Rome criteria for IBS, only four had been diagnosed by a physician during the past year,” said Dr. Eisen. “This finding may indicate a need for greater diligence on the part of primary care physicians to diagnose these patients and commence appropriate treatment.” These data also imply that gastroenterologists need to educate primary care physicians about both the diagnosis and management of IBS in order to maximize patient satisfaction for these IBS patients. IBS is a common medical disorder usually involving abdominal pain, bloating and constipation, and/or diarrhea in alternating patterns that is diagnosed when a patient has a cluster of symptoms that cannot be attributed to a specific disease for which diagnostic tests exist.