Abstract
Seventy-seven of 84 surviving patients in whom the irritable bowel syndrome had been diagnosed at least six years previously were reviewed. A different diagnosis was made in only four cases. Forty-four patients remained symptomatic and 29 patients had no further bowel problems. The irritable bowel syndrome is often a chronic, relapsing disorder, and further investigations are not necessary unless symptoms change considerably.
Full text
PDF

Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- CHAUDHARY N. A., TRUELOVE S. C. The irritable colon syndrome. A study of the clinical features, predisposing causes, and prognosis in 130 cases. Q J Med. 1962 Jul;31:307–322. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hawkins C. F., Cockel R. The prognosis and risk of missing malignant disease in patients with unexplained and functional diarrhoea. Gut. 1971 Mar;12(3):208–211. doi: 10.1136/gut.12.3.208. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Manning A. P., Thompson W. G., Heaton K. W., Morris A. F. Towards positive diagnosis of the irritable bowel. Br Med J. 1978 Sep 2;2(6138):653–654. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.6138.653. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Salter R. H., Cole T. P., Scott-Harden W. G., Girdwood T. G., Reid M. A. Patient-orientated gastroenterology. Br Med J. 1975 Apr 19;2(5963):130–131. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.5963.130. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Thompson D. G., Laidlow J. M., Wingate D. L. Abnormal small-bowel motility demonstrated by radiotelemetry in a patient with irritable colon. Lancet. 1979 Dec 22;2(8156-8157):1321–1323. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(79)92811-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
