Basic and Clinical Aspects of Chronic Abdominal Pain
About this book
This book represents a significant departure from current thinking about functional bowel disorders. The editors address and consider for the first time in a critical and comprehensive manner the concept that altered visceral afferent mechanisms were implicated in the pathogenicity of these "functional" disorders. The volume is a timely and important contribution to our thinking about the misunderstood and often intractable functional bowel disorders. For example, considered as a visceral hyperalgesia or a neuropathic-like condition, functional bowel disorders may be amenable to therapeutic strategies analogous to those successful in the modulation of cutaneous hyperalgesia or neuropathic pain. Based on the stimulus this book should provide, it is anticipated that functional bowel disorders will be considered in a new light and that more effective therapeutic strategies will evolve.