Irritable Bowel Syndrome—Gastrointestinal Disorder of the Year
Abstract
Each year the World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO) chooses a disease or disorder as the focus of World Digestive Health Day/Year (WDHD/Y) and collaborates with national and regional gastroenterology organizations across the globe in stimulating awareness among the public and the medical community about this topic. Past campaigns have successfully highlighted Helicobacter pylori, hepatitis, and nutrition. Each topic is carefully chosen on the basis of its global impact, as well as on the potential for generating positive contributions to prevention and treatment as a result of a campaign that involves traditional educational activities, as well as public fora and media events. This year WDHD was celebrated on 29 May (the anniversary of the founding of WGO) and focused on irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). As the WDHD concept has evolved, what began as a one-day wonder has developed into a year-long campaign, thus my designation of IBS as ‘gastrointestinal disorder of the year.’Irritable bowel syndrome, World Gastroenterology Organisation, gastroenterology, digestive disorder, digestive health, abdominal discomfort
It is now clear that irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), long regarded as common in the developed world, is a truly global issue. Thus, while estimates in western Europe and North America suggest that about 10% of all adults suffer from IBS,1 recent data from Asia and elsewhere indicate that similar prevalence rates have been recorded almost everywhere that surveys have been performed.2,3
IBS is truly a significant health problem for the individual sufferer and the community. The severity and impact of IBS vary widely. While for many of those affected IBS represents no more than an occasional annoyance, for others it is extremely debilitating, limiting work, social life, and personal activities. While never fatal, IBS in the most severely affected can lead to loss of time at work and school, impaired productivity, and a severe curtailment of social life. Indeed, it has been shown that IBS has a major socioeconomic impact.4–6 These realizations—that IBS affects personal quality of life and societal costs—represent a major step forward and have moved IBS from a position where it was commonly dismissed as being of no importance to that of being a subject of major research interest. That in itself is a major step forward; it is truly time that the public and an often skeptical medical community who have frequently treated IBS is missively in the past are informed of the current status of IBS and IBS research.
Unlike most other medical conditions, IBS at present cannot be diagnosed on the basis of a blood test or a diagnostic X-ray. In practice it is diagnosed on the basis of symptoms alone. Considerable effort has gone into refining the diagnosis of IBS, an issue of considerable importance when one comes to selecting homogenous populations for clinical trials of new compounds. To advance this process IBS experts meet regularly to review diagnostic symptoms and the latest research and to formulate recommendations for a standardized symptom-based diagnosis of IBS: the Rome criteria.7 The Rome criteria have been adopted as the standard for all IBS research.
