The Best Treatment For IBS – Diagnosing IBS: The Symptoms To Look Out For

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a disorder of the gastro-intestinal tract. It is thought to affect between 10-20% of people. It can be a long-term and chronic condition affecting either the small or large intestine. Symptoms can include abdominal pain and discomfort, constipation and/or diarrhea.

Many patients will visit their doctor when they suffer gastro-intestinal complaints. Doctors will consider the symptoms and testimony from the patient in order to reach a diagnosis that may be positive or negative for IBS.

The basis of IBS diagnosis is a full physical examination and review of the patient’s medical history. Doctors have to consider the possibility of more serious medical conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease or colonic cancer. Therefore laboratory tests of blood and stool and endoscopic procedures may be used to rule out these conditions.

The correct treatment of IBS starts with the correct diagnosis, and the key diagnostic tool for doctors is an accurate description of the symptoms the patient is experiencing. In 1978 a researcher called Adrian Manning and colleagues developed criteria for IBS symptoms. Using the “Manning Criteria”, doctors were able to positively identify IBS cases, enabling them to start appropriate IBS treatment.

In 1988 in Rome an international forum of gastro-enterologists further specified the IBS criteria, and in 1999 the Manning Criteria were revised into what is now called the Rome II criteria. This set of symptoms is still used to inform the standard diagnosis of IBS.

In the Rome II criteria the symptoms that would cumulatively support a diagnosis of IBS are:

1.    Stool frequency is abnormal – either constipation or diarrhea.

2.    The stool is abnormal – perhaps lumpy or watery (a diagnostic aid called the Bristol Stool Form scale is used to categorize the stool into one of seven groups).

3.    Bowel movements are uncomfortable – perhaps straining, urgency or a feeling that the evacuation is incomplete.

4.    Mucus may be discharged from the anus.

5.    A feeling of bloating or abdominal distension.

Not all of these symptoms are necessarily present in every case.

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