Indian
J Gastroenterol. 2008 Jan-Feb;27(1):22-8.
Epidemiological
and clinical profile of irritable bowel syndrome in India: report of the Indian
Society of Gastroenterology Task Force.
Ghoshal UC,
Abraham P, Bhatt C, Choudhuri G,
Bhatia SJ, Shenoy KT,
Banka NH, Bose K, Bohidar NP,
Chakravartty K,
Shekhar NC,
Desai N, Dutta U,
Das G,
Dutta S,
Dixit VK, Goswami BD,
Jain RK, Jain S, Jayanthi V,
Kochhar R,
Kumar A, Makharia G,
Mukewar SV,
Mohan Prasad VG, Mohanty A,
Mohan AT, Sathyaprakash BS,
Prabhakar B,
Philip M, Veerraju EP,
Ray G,
Rai RR,
Seth AK, Sachdeva A,
Singh SP, Sood A,
Thomas V, Tiwari S,
Tandan M,
Upadhyay R,
Vij JC.
Department of Gastroenterology, SGPGI, Lucknow. ghoshal@sgpgi.ac.in
Comment
in:
AIMS: To
study the profile of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and the frequency of such
symptoms among the general population, in India. METHODS: In this prospective,
multi-center study, data were obtained from 2785
patients with chronic lower gastrointestinal symptoms (complainants) with no
alarm feature and negative investigations for organic causes visiting
physicians at 30 centers, and from 4500 community
subjects (non-complainants), using separate questionnaires. RESULTS: Most
complainants were middle-aged (mean age 39.4 years) and male (1891; 68%). The
common symptoms were: abdominal pain or discomfort (1958; 70%), abdominal
fullness (1951; 70%); subjective feeling of constipation (1404 of 2656; 53%),
or diarrhea (1252 of 2656, 47%), incomplete
evacuation (2134; 77%), mucus with stools (1506; 54%), straining at stools
(1271; 46%), epigastric pain (1364; 49%) and milk
intolerance (906; 32%). Median stool frequency was similar in patients who felt
they had constipation or those who felt they had diarrhea.
Information to subtype symptoms using standard criteria was available in 1301
patients; of these, 507 (39%) had constipation-predominant IBS ( 3 <or= stools/week), 50 (4%) had diarrhea-predominant
IBS (>3 stools/day) and 744 (57%) had indeterminate symptoms. Among
non-complainants, most subjects reported daily defecation frequency of one
(2520 [56%]) or two (1535 [34%]). Among non-complainants, 567 (12.6%) reported
abdominal pain, 503 (11%) irregular bowel, 1030 (23%) incomplete evacuation,
167 (4%) mucus and 846 (18%) straining at stools; a combination of abdominal
pain or discomfort relieved by defecation, and incomplete evacuation was
present in 189/4500 (4.2%) community subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Most patients with
IBS in India are middle-aged men, and have a sense of incomplete evacuation and
mucus with stools. Abdominal pain or discomfort is frequent but not universal.
Importantly, stool frequency was similar irrespective of whether the patients
felt having constipation or diarrhea. Most (90%)
non-complainant subjects had 1 or 2 stools per day; symptoms complex suggestive
of IBS was present in 4.2% of community subjects.
PMID: 18541934 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]