Irritable bower syndrome and intestinal hypersensitivity

A serious condition: irritable bowel syndrome is a clinically ill-defined e ntity which has a serious impact on the patient's daily activities, quality of life and use of medical resources. Visceral sensitivity: Cut motor abnormalities were first considered to be r esponsible for this syndrome but recent studies have suggested that patient s suffering from irritable bowel syndrome may have a diffuse abnormality of visceral perception with lowered pain threshold. Visceral sensitivity may be explored by rectal distension using a barstat. Many receptors are involv e din gut sensitivity, especially serotonin receptors and opioid receptors. Therapeutic possibilities: By acting on the receptors, there is hope for de velopment of therapeutically active agents truly efficacious on Visceral hy persensitivity. it also seems unlikely that this multisymptomatic syndrome with peripheral and central components would reliably respond to the same s ingle agent in all patients.