Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a gastrointestinal disorder characterized by prolonged, recurrent episodes of abdominal pain, bloating, abnormal bowel habits and stool characteristics, and mucus stools, and the lack of morphologic and biochemical abnormalities to explain the syndrome. In the past, it was called mucositis, colonic spasm, colonic allergy, allergic colitis, and irritable colon. The disease is a common clinical condition, accounting for 20%-50% of gastrointestinal outpatient consultations in Western countries, mostly in young and middle-aged people, and about twice as common in women as in men.
The definition of irritable bowel syndrome was proposed at the International Conference in Rome in 1988: 1. abdominal pain, relieved after defecation, or accompanied by changes in the shape and frequency of stools. 2.
2. Abnormal bowel behavior, manifested by two or more of the following: change in the number of bowel movements, change in the shape of stool, abnormal stool elimination process, incomplete bowel movement, mucus stool.
The disease starts slowly, with intermittent episodes and periods of remission. Although there are individual differences in symptoms, the onset rules and forms are mostly fixed for a specific patient, and the age of onset is mostly seen between 20-50 years old.
The disease can be divided into three types, namely diarrhea, constipation and mixed type.
Clinical manifestations 1, abdominal pain: is the main symptom, mostly accompanied by abnormal defecation and relieved after defecation, some patients are easy to appear after eating, the following abdominal pain is common, the nature of pain is diverse, the degree varies.
2, diarrhea: characterized by low stool volume, often <200 g / day; diarrhea disappears after 72 hours of fasting; does not appear at night; about 1/4 patients can be triggered by eating; alternating phenomenon of diarrhea and constipation. 3, constipation: is colon spasmodic constipation, manifested as lower abdominal pain and Yang shit-like constipation, diarrhea and constipation occurs after, mostly in the morning 5-6 o’clock or after eating diarrhea, mostly mucus stool. After a period of time and turn to constipation, late can be persistent. 4, abdominal distension: aggravated during the day, reduced after sleep at night. 5.Extra-gastrointestinal symptoms: often accompanied by systemic mental symptoms, such as insomnia, forgetfulness, fatigue, headache, palpitation, feeling of breathlessness, frequent urination, urgent urination, sexual dysfunction or menstrual irregularities, etc. 6, mental symptoms: the above symptoms appear or aggravate food, some patients have different degrees of psycho-psychiatric abnormal performance, such as depression, anxiety, paranoia, hostility, etc.