Irritable Bowel Syndrome – dissection of a disease

Abstract

AbstractThe last 35 years (since about 1985) have produced a vast amount of scientific publications regarding irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) with no real progress: The etiology and pathogenesis of IBS is still incompletely understood. Diagnosis and therapy is left to the individual understanding of the treating physicians in general medicine, gastroenterology and psychosomatic/psychiatry. In this gloss, three prominent representatives of neurogastroenterology in Germany, assess their own contributions and those of their colleagues and lament the huge gap between ambitions and reality in clinical and basic science in IBS.