Irritable bowel syndrome was called spastic colon and idiopathic or nervous diarrhoea.
Bowel habits are disturbed by diarrhoea or constipation alone or alternating.
The main reason for the IBS is unknown, however in some patients psychological disturbances, especially anxiety and hypochondriasis are evident. Patients may be tense or conscientious individuals who worry excessively about family or financial affairs.
The syndrome is most common in women between 20 to 40 yrs. The commonest symptom is pain referred to the left or right iliac fossa or the hypogastrium, sometimes varying in site. Dyspepsia is also a part of the syndrome. Pain often occurs in attacks usually relieved with defecation and sometimes provoked by food. Bowel habit is variable. All most all patients at sometime notice pellet like or ribbon like stools with or without mucus. Diarrhea is painless and happens most of the time at morning and never at night. An urge to defecate after a meal might be due to gastrocolic reflex. Other symptoms include abdominal distension, a sensation of incomplete emptying of the rectum, excessive flatus and audible sounds in the abdomen.
