Today's therapy of functional gastrointestinal disorders--does it help?

Abstract

Functional gastrointestinal disorders are best understood by applying a bio-psycho-social model. The diseases are strongly associated with psychological factors, and in functional dyspepsia, low vagal activity might be a mediating mechanism by which psychological factors (like neuroticism and stress) influence gastrointestinal physiology and cause epigastric discomfort. Low vagal activity may be a manifestation of stress and a cause of impaired gastric accommodation to meals. Epigastric discomfort is elicited when the stomach is distended without prior (vagal) reflex relaxation. Conventional therapy for acid-related dyspepsia does not improve accommodation and hence, is ineffective. The beneficial effect of experimental therapy, like glyceryl trinitrate and sumatriptan, which improve gastric accommodation, gives very good prospects for further development. For patients with irritable bowel syndrome, today's therapy seems similarly inefficacious, but several new potentially effective drugs are at present undergoing clinical trials.