A disorder of motility of the entire gastrointestinal tract ( GIT ), which produces abdominal pain, constipation or diarrhea. Affects women up to three times more often than men. With this disorder the gastrointestinal tract is extremely sensitive to diverse factors such as stress, diet, drugs and hormones , which can cause the GIT to contract abnormally. There are two distinct types of IBS :

1. Spastic colon, commonly triggered by eating and usually produces constipation or diarrhea with pain.
2. The second type produces painless diarrhea or constipation. Often the diarrhea occurs with extreme urgency.

Treatment includes improving one's diet, increasing fiber intake, identifying stressors, regular exercise, antispasmotics (not yet proven to be very effective) and antidiarrheal drugs to aid in that area.