Medical Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

ABSTRACT

The identification, diagnosis, and treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) have a tremendous impact on the large number of patients with this syndrome and on physicians representing a wide variety of general and specialty practices. There are well-established diagnostic criteria and algorithms for the initial evaluation of patients presenting with the symptoms of IBS. The symptoms can be targeted for therapy with a variety of pharmaceutical and nonpharmaceutical agents. Therapy should be individualized for the patient, and the cornerstone for any effective treatment strategy should be a solid patient-physician relationship. Medications released in the past several years are based on the understanding of serotonin receptors in the gut and their role in the pathogenesis of IBS.

KEYWORDS

Irritable bowel syndrome - functional gastrointestinal disease - alosetron - tegaserod

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