What do IBS, chronic widespread pain, & chronic fatigue have in common?
Irritable bowel, chronic widespread pain, chronic fatigue and related syndromes are prevalent and highly overlapping in the general population. This is the title of a new 2020 study, which just reaffirms what we know here- these issues should not be seen as separate medical conditions but together as part of one condition, which the researchers label BDS “Bodily Distress Syndrome”. The common denominator here is an altered nervous system and that system can spit out many different symptoms and conditions.
From the authors: “We found a low likelihood of having the “pure” type of each of the investigated disorders thus questioning the current clinical practice that focuses on one disorder at a time. Even more importantly, our results question the usability of specific guidelines for single (i.e. “pure”) syndromes as most patients presenting at the clinic have FSS (functional somatic symptom) comorbidities.”
