Case: Ms. Xie, 39 years old, white-collar worker, has increased stool frequency, 5-10 times/day, and often has bowel movements after eating or drinking water; her stool is unformed or even dilute and watery, undigested food is seen in the stool, abdominal pain and bloating before stool is obvious, relieved after defecation, common stool with mucus, symptoms worsen when nervous or cold weather, constipation occurs intermittently, colonoscopy was performed, no obvious abnormalities were seen. 1.What is irritable bowel syndrome? We often hear people complain that their intestines are very “delicate”. Simply put, the intestines are more sensitive, for example, everyone eats the same thing, but they will have abdominal pain and diarrhea after eating, or they will have abdominal pain and bloating when they are emotionally stressed, with active intestinal sounds and increased number of bowel movements and exhaustion, but the abdominal pain and bloating will improve after defecation and exhaustion; in severe cases, patients will have a feeling of defecation after eating or drinking water, and most of the defecation is unformed, or even dilute watery stool; also Some patients have alternating diarrhea and constipation; medically, this disease is called irritable bowel syndrome. According to the epidemiological survey, the rate of hospital visits for this disease is only about 25%, and 75% of patients do not go to the hospital. 2. What kind of people are susceptible to irritable bowel syndrome? According to the survey, patients with irritable bowel syndrome account for more than 30% of patients in gastroenterology outpatient clinics, and it is the most common functional digestive disease besides functional indigestion. It is particularly prevalent among students, civil servants, white-collar workers, intellectuals and other people engaged in stressful mental work, and is more common in women than in men, who often suffer from high mental stress, irregular diet and sleep, and lack of proper exercise. Once suffering from the disease, this will have a greater impact on work and study, and then form a vicious circle. 3.What is the cause of irritable bowel syndrome? a) irritable bowel syndrome has a genetic tendency, many patients have irritable bowel syndrome since childhood, and often have a family history, indicating that it is related to genetic factors; b) mental factors: the onset and aggravation of the symptoms of the disease are related to emotional stress, anxiety, excitement, depression, fear and other factors can trigger or aggravate the disease; c) dietary factors: some patients may suffer from lactose indigestion due to lactase deficiency, and some patients prefer cold drinks or spicy drinks. Patients like to eat cold drinks or spicy food and trigger the attack of the disease; d) intestinal dysbiosis: normal intestine is dominated by anaerobic bacteria, but inappropriate application of antibiotics or change of residence, diarrhea caused by unclean diet can also cause dysbiosis secondary to the disease; e) drugs: drinking large amounts of coffee can also lead to colonic allergy; laxatives and the following drugs can aggravate the symptoms of allergic colon, such as mullein, quinidine, benzodiazepine and some antibiotics. Laxatives and the following drugs can aggravate the symptoms of the allergic colon, such as maldegranate, quinidine, insulin and certain anti-hypertensive drugs such as hydrazineprazine and reserpine. 4.The danger of irritable bowel syndrome? (1) irritable bowel syndrome affects the patient’s study and work, thus seriously affecting the patient’s quality of life; (2) long-term and persistent symptoms cause great mental stress to the patient, and many patients often suspect that they have a difficult disease due to recurrent symptoms, but there are no positive findings in the relevant tests, and therefore suffer from depression, anxiety and other psychological diseases; (3) long-term diarrhea leads to a decline in the body’s immunity, malnutrition The disease can lead to more serious consequences, especially for children, surrogate women and the elderly. 5.How to treat irritable bowel syndrome? The main principles of the treatment of the disease are life conditioning, symptomatic treatment, improvement of gastrointestinal dynamics, release of intestinal spasm and reduction of intestinal gas production, etc., supplemented by the necessary psychological treatment. Many patients with irritable bowel syndrome are not cured for a long time only because they cannot remove the causative factors, such as the inability to improve the work and study environment and the inability to develop good eating habits. Therefore, a relaxed state of mind and good eating habits are the primary conditions for the treatment of the disease. Second, the correct use of medication. The drug treatment of irritable bowel syndrome is often based on intestinal antispasmodic drugs and intestinal microecological preparations. Patients who have a long course of the disease and do not take medication effectively need to receive psychotherapy. Many patients reject psychotherapy, believing that they do not have a psychological disorder, but experience symptoms of depression or anxiety in their daily lives: often apprehension and irritability due to recurrent bowel symptoms, inability to concentrate or make decisions, memory loss, lack of interest in things they normally enjoy, frequent insomnia, and even thoughts of death or suicide. Against the above descriptions, if they do exist, then you should seek the help of a psychiatrist promptly in order to treat irritable bowel syndrome effectively.