Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | The Rome Criteria are here on the site...

http://www.helpforibs.com/footer/rome_guidelines.asp for people who want them.

I don't know if people will meet resistance from their docs about diagnostic tests or not. Some docs seem to run every test there is regardless of the patient, and some docs won't run tests despite bright red flags everywhere. I almost think this has more to do with things like insurance, a doc's overall competence, and things like that.

My big problem here is that the doctors actually treating IBS patients do not seem to have any idea that the Rome Criteria exist, let alone the details. I'm sure some of them do (and I wish all of them did) but that just isn't the case.

In my own small family, four people in the past ten years (well within the Rome Criteria existence) have been misdiagnosed with IBS (one had simple lactose intolerance, one had celiac, one had gallstones, and one had a liver problem).

None of them fit the Rome Criteria without red flags. All of them were told they had IBS and not told about other disorders that could be causing their symptoms. Some of them were given diagnostic tests (that still did not initially find the real problem) and some were not.

All of them ended up properly diagnosed after doing research on their own, and after reaching the conclusion that their doctors had not figure out their problems correctly. They then persisted in getting more tests.

Not one of them heard the phrase "Rome Criteria" until I mentioned it to them, and they were uniformly upset that their docs hadn't given them these symptom guidelines.

I think the real problem here is educating the doctors, not just the patients. If every family doc and GI doc knew about the Rome Criteria, and actually made sure that a patient fit the IBS symptoms and had no red flags, and only then diagnosed IBS, that would solve just about everything.

I'd bet good money that most IBS patients who go into their docs and ask if they fit the Rome Criteria will be met with a blank stare and the question, "what's that?"

Sad but true, and I hope things change.

- H

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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!

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