Pathophysiology of irritable bowel syndrome

Traditionally, irritable bowel syndrome has been considered to be a disorder with no known underlying structural or biochemical explanation, but this concept is likely to be outdated. In this Review we challenge the widely accepted view that irritable bowel syndrome is an unexplained brain-gut disorder. There is epidemiological evidence that, in a major subset of patients, gastrointestinal symptoms arise first and only later do incident mood...