First its important to go over IBS itself. There are some 28 GI disorders of function, some examples are IBS, functional dyspepsisa, functional D, functional c, functional analrectal disorders ect..
The diagnoses of IBS is based on a specific cluster of symptoms. It is NOT a catch all diagnoses.
"What Patients Know About Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and What They Would Like to Know. National Survey on Patient Educational Needs in IBS and Development and Validation of the Patient Educational Posted 09/18/2007
"The most prevalent IBS misconceptions included (% of subjects agreeing with the statement): IBS is caused by lack of digestive enzymes (52%), is a form of colitis (42.8%), will worsen with age (47.9%), and can develop into colitis (43%) or malnutrition (37.7%) or cancer (21.4%). IBS patients were interested in learning about (% of subjects choosing an item): (1) foods to avoid (63.3%), (2) causes of IBS (62%), (3) coping strategies (59.4%), (4) medications (55.2%), (5) will they have to live with IBS for life (51.6%), and (6) research studies (48.6%). Patients using the Web were better informed about IBS. Conclusion: (1) Many patients hold misconceptions about IBS being caused by dietary habits, developing into cancer, colitis, causing malnutrition, or worsening with age; (2) patients most often seek information about dietary changes; and (3) educational needs may be different for persons using the internet for medical information."
"The emerging research typifies IBS as a brain-gut disorder where psychosocial factors (e.g., stress, cognitions, coping, etc.) can alter the symptoms and illness experience for better or worse. Due to these and other disease specific characteristics, that are amenable to education, we believe effective educational interventions may significantly impact the management of this common disorder."
Patients Consider IBS a Diagnosis of Exclusion: Over 50% of the patients considered IBS to be a "catch all" diagnosis and another 22% were unsure. While this could reflect the information provided by their physicians (thus highlighting the need to also educate physicians about IBS), this misconception may motivate patients to seek more and more diagnostic studies to find "the cause." The use of the Rome criteria[17] permits the patient to have a positive diagnosis. With confidence in knowing that IBS is a specific entity , such behaviors are minimized. Thus it is important for the physician to provide proper education about the level of confidence in the diagnosis.
Hopefully also it will help when talking to your doctor.
NEVER self diagnose. The leading cause of misdiagnoses is self diagnoses. Some conditions that mimick some IBS symptoms are also very serious and even potentially deadly.
First though is the change in diagnosing IBS that has been made.
"In the past two decades, medical opinion has changed regarding how to diagnose IBS. The older view emphasized that IBS should be regarded primarily as a "diagnosis of exclusion;" that is, diagnosed only after diagnostic testing excludes many disorders that could possibly cause the symptoms. Because many medical disorders can produce the cardinal IBS features of abdominal discomfort or pain and disturbed bowel habit as well as other symptoms caused by IBS, this approach often led to extensive diagnostic testing in many patients. Since the era when such thinking about IBS was common, laboratory, motility, radiologic, and endoscopic tests have proliferated. Although each of these tests is useful in evaluating certain problems, their routine or indiscriminate use can cause unnecessary inconvenience and cost for patients, and complications even occur infrequently from some of the tests. Fortunately, physicians can now diagnose IBS in most patients by recognizing certain symptom details, performing a physical examination, and undertaking limited diagnostic testing. This simpler approach is grounded on recent knowledge of the typical symptoms of IBS, and it leads to a reliable diagnosis in most cases. Extensive testing is usually reserved for special situations."
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Re: Shawneric
