Upalni i funkcionalni crijevni poremećeaji: somatske, psihološke i socijalne karakteristike
Inflammatory and Functional Bowel Disorders: Somatic, Psychological and Social Features

Summary/Abstract: Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, and irritable bowel syndrome, one of the most frequent functional bowel disorders, were traditionally regarded as separate entities. The former are considered organic diseases with obvious signs of chronic bowel inflammation and psychological factors as secondary to disease. The latter shows that no visible structural abnormalities and symptoms occur as a consequence of modified perception of gastrointestinal function. However, fenotipic expression of these two groups of diseases is overlapping, not only in common symptoms of altered bowel habits connected with abdominal pain and discomfort, but also in the fact that irritable bowel syndrome has some signs of microscopic inflammation, while inflammatory bowel diseases show inconsistency between perception of disease severity and real disease activity. In the last few years, some similarities in pathophysiological and psychosocial features ot these diseases were highlighted. According to the biopsychosocial model, inflammatory bowel diseases and irritable bowel syndrome are products of the interactions between altered gut physiology and psychosocial factors, due to reciprocal brain-gut connections. The validity of organic-functional distinction is discussed in this paper.

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