Diagnosing irritable bowel syndrome: poor agreement between general practitioners and the Rome II criteria

The new guidelines for diagnosing irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in clinical practice recommend the use of the Rome II criteria. In this study the agreement between general practitioners (GPs) and the Rome II criteria for diagnosing of IBS and functional bowel disorders (FBD) is examined.Consecutive patients in general practice were asked to report on abdominal complaints, for which they had consulted or wanted to consult a GP. Patients with...