Pain is temporally related to eating but not to defaecation in the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Patients' description of diarrhoea, constipation and symptom variation during a prospective 6-week study

Objectives To study the intensity and variation of pain and its temporal relation to eating and defaecation. Furthermore, what irritable bower (IBS) patients mean by constipation and diarrhoea and how bower symptoms vary, Design Prospective daily symptom recording over 6 weeks. Setting The primary catchment area of University Hospital of Linkoping. Participants Eighty consecutive patients fulfilling the Pome criteria; 63 finished the study. Results Fifty-nine of 63 patients recorded an average of 29 pain periods and 24 days with pain during the 6 weeks. Over-all pain burden decreased slightly over the study period. At inclusion 38 (64%) patients claimed that pain was relieved by defaecation. However, on average, only 10% of each patient's recorded pain periods were relieved by defaecation. At inclusion 29 (49%) patients claimed postprandial worsening of pain. On average, 50% of each patient's recorded pain periods worsened postprandially. The patients defined constipation as hard stools and diarrhoea as loose stools and urgency. Stool frequency did not differ, Bowel symptoms varied within, but not between, fortnightly periods. Conclusions Postprandial worsening of pain should be included as a criterion in the clinical definition of IBS while the criterion 'pain relieved by defaecation' should be re-evaluated. IBS patients can probably be divided into subgroups based on stool consistency, not frequency, Daily records are superior to structured clinical interviews or questionnaires for a detailed study of symptoms in IBS, (C) 1998 Lippincott-Raven Publishers.