# Irritable Bowel Syndrome Found to be Underdiagnosed



## JeanG (Oct 20, 1999)

The URL for this article is: http://www.medscape.com/MedscapeWire/2000/....Irritable.html Irritable Bowel Syndrome Found to Be UnderdiagnosedOctober 27, 2000MedscapeWire--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) have a significantly lower quality of life than patients without IBS, according to researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. The research findings were released at the 65th Annual Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) in New York City."Whereas patients with IBS did not differ from the other participants in terms of demographic variables such as age, race, marital status, sex, education, and income, the IBS patients had significantly lower scores on quality of life measures," said lead investigator Glenn M. Eisen, MD. "Our results indicate that IBS sufferers have more frequent and severe physical and mental health complaints." Researchers found that 9% of a random sample of 1032 participants enrolled in the Lovelace Health Plan HMO met the criteria for IBS. The syndrome was diagnosed using Rome criteria, a list of symptoms (such as abdominal pain, bloating, and changes in bowel habits) that was developed based on results from clinical and epidemiological studies. For the Vanderbilt study, trained personnel used the Rome criteria to assess telephone survey participants. In addition, participants were evaluated for physical and mental health status with standardized instruments. When the telephone survey was completed, patient records from the HMO provided diagnoses for inpatient and outpatient visits for the year preceding the survey. The data indicate that primary care physicians underdiagnose IBS. "We were somewhat surprised to learn that of the 94 patients who met the Rome criteria for IBS, only four had been diagnosed by a physician during the past year," said Dr. Eisen. "This finding may indicate a need for greater diligence on the part of primary care physicians to diagnose these patients and commence appropriate treatment." These data also imply that gastroenterologists need to educate primary care physicians about both the diagnosis and management of IBS in order to maximize patient satisfaction for these IBS patients.IBS is a common medical disorder usually involving abdominal pain, bloating and constipation, and/or diarrhea in alternating patterns that is diagnosed when a patient has a cluster of symptoms that cannot be attributed to a specific disease for which diagnostic tests exist.


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