A large academic study has demonstrated structural changes in
specific brain regions in female patients with irritable bowel
syndrome (IBS), a condition that causes pain and discomfort in
the abdomen, along with diarrhoea, constipation or both. A
collaborative effort between UCLA and Canada's McGill
University, the study appears in the July issue of the journal
Gastroenterology. The findings show that IBS is associated with
both decreases and increases in grey matter density in key areas
of the brain involved in attention, emotion regulation, pain
inhibition and the processing of visceral information. IBS
affects approximately 15 percent of the U.S. population,
primarily women. Currently, the condition is considered by the
medical field to be a 'functional' syndrome of the digestive
tract not working properly rather than an 'organic' disorder
with structural organ changes. Efforts to identify structural or
biochemical alterations in the gut have largely been
unsuccessful. Even though the pathophysiology is no