Medical treatment of irritable bowel syndrome.

The identification, diagnosis, and treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) have a tremendous impact on the large number of patients with this syndrome and on physicians representing a wide variety of general and specialty practices. There are well-established diagnostic criteria and algorithms for the initial evaluation of patients presenting with the symptoms of IBS. The symptoms can be targeted for therapy with a variety of pharmaceutical and nonpharmaceutical agents. Therapy should be individualized for the patient, and the cornerstone for any effective treatment strategy should be a solid patient-physician relationship. Medications released in the past several years are based on the understanding of serotonin receptors in the gut and their role in the pathogenesis of IBS.