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Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)

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Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)

Written by Dr Dan Rutherford, GP

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a mixture of abdominal symptoms for which there is no apparent cause.

Symptoms include constipation, diarrhoea, bloating and abdominal pain.

It is the most common condition seen by gastroenterologists and some estimates suggest that as many as one in five adults in the UK have IBS at any one time.

The bowel and IBS

Other names for IBS

Irritable colon.

Spastic colon.

Mucous colitis.

These names are misleading because IBS is not limited to the colon.

What causes irritable bowel syndrome?

How common is IBS? IBS is more common in women.

In the UK about 13 per cent of women and 5 per cent of men have IBS.

What are the symptoms of IBS?

IBS and cancer Although IBS can be a distressing condition, it never causes bowel cancer or bowel damage.

Oesophagus (takes food from mouth to stomach)

A sensation like a golf ball in the throat between meals, but does not interfere with swallowing.

Heartburn - burning pain often felt behind the breastbone.

Painful swallowing (odynophagia), but without hold-up of food.

Sticking of food (dysphagia) - this requires investigation.

Stomach

Non-ulcer dyspepsia (symptoms suggestive of a stomach or duodenal ulcer, but which has not been confirmed on investigation).

Feeling full after small meals. This may reach the stage of not being able to finish a meal.

Abdominal bloating after meals.

Small bowel

Increased gurgling noises which may be loud enough to cause social embarrassment (borborygmi).

Severe abdominal bloating and generalised abdominal tenderness associated with bloating.

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