Luminary Learning Gastrointestinal Disorder- Issue 1

13 Pharmacological and clinical treatment of irritable bowel syndrome Maciej Sałaga, Paula Mosińska Abstract Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal (GI) disorder with an unknown etiology, which is a growing major concern worldwide. Since the pathophysiology of IBS is barely understood there is no specific treatment for this disorder and numerous treatment options aiming at various pharmacological targets located not only in the GI tract, but also in the central nervous system (CNS) are available. In this chapter we provide an overview on drugs that are currently available for IBS therapy with regard to the type of the disease. We discuss their mecha- nisms of action, evidences for their effectiveness emerging from clinical trials as well as virtues and drawbacks of the most commonly prescribed medications. Furthermore we highlight the practical aspects of the use of certain drugs, such as possible adverse events and contraindications. Moreover we introduce selected complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) methods that have been proven effective in clinical tests. Keywords: Irritable bowel syndrome, Intestinal transit, Visceral pain, G protein-coupled recep- tors, Ion channels, Hypnosis List of abbreviations MOR µ Opioid receptor DOR δ Opioid receptor KOR κ Opioid receptor APN Aminopeptidase N CNS Central nervous system 2 M. Sałaga (  ), P. Mosińska Faculty of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry, Medical University of Lodz, Mazowiecka 6/8, 92-215 Lodz, Poland e-mail: salaga.maciej@gmail.com