As is the case in most syndromes, the irritable bowel syndrome is made up of different signs and symptoms. IBS has not been shown to lead to serious disease, including cancer. Through the years, IBS has had many names including colitis, mucous colitis, spastic colon, or spastic bowel. However, no link has been established between IBS and inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.
When a patient has really severe symptoms and it is affecting their way of life, you can just consider that they are likely to feel some stress about that, and a lot of patients will say, “Well, I don’t really have depression, or my mood was not actually bad before, it’s merely that I really feel so impaired in my life.” They can have lower self esteem, and that can really affect their functioning in that way. Read the rest of this entry »