ABSTRACT
The use of psychopharmacological agents in the treatment of functional gastrointestinal (GI) disorders arises, in part, from clinical observations that individuals presenting for treatment for these disorders appear to exhibit a high prevalence of concurrent psychiatric morbidity. This chapter reviews the association of functional GI disorders and psychiatric illness in treatment-seeking patient samples, and examines the prevalence of medically unexplained GI symptoms in a large community sample of individuals screened for psychiatric disorders. An overview of the brain-gut interaction is presented. Based on these data, a model is presented that suggests practical guidelines for the use of psychopharmacological agents in the treatment of functional GI disorders in patients with and without concomitant psychiatric disorders. Irritable bowel syndrome is a common and often debilitating functional GI disorder, affecting 8-17% of the general population.
