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Irritable bowel syndrome is one of the most common medical conditions diagnosed today. It is a chronic functional gastrointestinal disorder that affects all aspects of the patient’s daily life. It was first recognized nearly two centuries ago, but it still remains widely misunder­stood by both patients and physicians. Irritable bowel syndrome has been given a number of different names over the years, including nervous colitis, spastic colitis, mucous colitis, unstable colon and irritable colon. Today it is known that irritable bowel syndrome is a syn­drome of findings rather than just a single, isolated complaint that can affect multiple areas of the gastrointestinal tract and is not limited only to the colon. Understanding of the patho­physiology of irritable bowel syndrome has changed considerably during the past 50 years. Initially, it was thought to represent a nervous disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. However, new studies have demonstrated that irritable bowel syndrome is not caused by a single fac­tor; rather, it is a complex disorder in which a number of physiologic processes are involved.