JEDDAH, 21 June 2006 — Patients usually tolerate the symptoms associated with irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, because they are unaware that it is treatable, but doctors are urging people to seek medical care as the disorder clearly affects their quality of life. Doctors say there is a misunderstanding and lack of awareness about IBS, a chronic gastrointestinal function disorder, which afflicts 20 percent of the population. With symptoms of abdominal pain, bloating and constipation or diarrhea, it is common for people to ignore the problem and take whatever medication to treat the symptom. However, this problem could become a major disruption and inconvenience in people’s daily life. Dr. Mona Ismail, assistant professor of medicine at College of Medicine at King Faisal University and consultant hepatologist/gastroenterologist at Department of Internal Medicine at King Fahd University Hospital in Alkhobar, explained to Arab News that IBS was initially not understood by physicians and was considered psychosomatic. But new s tudies have shown that there are physiological and pathological aspects to IBS. “We used to treat the symptoms individually, but now there is better understanding of the disease and we can explain to the patient that there is a relation between the gut and brain and assure them that it is a benign disease that will not progress into cancer, which alleviates their apprehension,” she said. In addition, patients now can take a relatively new drug, Zelmac, which has proven to be effective in treating all the symptoms of IBS on the long-term, she said. Patients are prescribed the medication for three months and then can take it as needed. “It showed marked improvement in reducing the symptoms and even after the patients stop taking the drug, the changes in the symptoms are for the better,” said Ismail. Although IBS is considered a life-long problem and the drug is not a cure per se, the data shows improvement in the symptoms and no side effects. In most populations, IBS affects women more than men. “It is not known why it affects women more than men,” said Ismail whose IBS patients are 60-70 percent women. The number of female IBS patients could be even more because most women are embarrassed or ignore seeking medical help. “Where I work, I have found that female patients take it as a great relief to be able to talk about their problems with a woman doctor,” she said. “Not a lot of studies has been done on gastrointestinal diseases in women here and we need more epidemiological trial studies on the instances of the disease,” she said. On the other hand, a general practitioner doctor often diagnoses IBS wrongly. There is now a strict criterion that helps clinicians diagnose the disease correctly. While stress and some foods with high sugar and fat content might seem to be related to the problem and it would help to know what factors are more likely to trigger the problem, Ismail said that doctors do not limit the patient’s diet. A family history of IBS might also be a factor but no genetic link has been identified yet. “The important thing is to raise awareness of the disease and encourage people to seek medical advice,” said Ismail.
