My stomach hurts a little and I feel like I need to defecate all the time

Slight stomach pain and a constant urge to defecate are the main symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). This disease is closely related to people’s eating habits. After the onset of the disease, it will have many effects on the human body, so timely conditioning and treatment are required. Specific methods include: adjusting diet, psychological and behavioral therapy, drug therapy, and traditional Chinese medicine treatment. Below we will introduce these treatment methods in detail!

1. Adjust your diet

Understand the patient's eating habits and their relationship to symptoms in detail, avoid sensitive foods, avoid excessive fat and irritating foods such as coffee, strong tea, alcohol, etc., and reduce the intake of gas-producing foods (dairy products, soybeans, lentils, etc.). High-fiber foods (such as bran) can stimulate colon movement and have a significant effect on improving constipation.

2. Psychological and behavioral therapy

Patiently explain the work to the patients, including psychotherapy, biofeedback therapy, etc. For those with symptoms such as insomnia and anxiety, sedatives can be given appropriately.

3. Medication

(1) Antispasmodics Currently, the most commonly used ones are selective intestinal smooth muscle calcium channel antagonists or ion channel modulators. Anticholesterol drugs such as atropine, belladonna, and scopolamine can also improve abdominal pain symptoms, but attention should be paid to adverse reactions.

(2) Laxatives: Laxatives can be used for constipation. Bulk laxatives such as methylcellulose and osmotic laxatives such as polyethylene glycol and lactulose can be tried. Stimulant laxatives should be used with caution.

(3) Antidiarrheal drugs such as loperamide or diphenoxylate can improve diarrhea, but attention should be paid to adverse reactions such as constipation and abdominal distension. For mild cases, adsorbents such as octahedral montmorillonite can be used.

(4) Prokinetic agents are suitable for patients with abdominal distension and constipation. Commonly used ones include cisapride or mosapride.

(5) Visceral analgesics Somatostatin and its analogs such as octreotide have the effect of relieving somatic and visceral pain. 5-HT3 receptor blockers such as alosetron can improve abdominal pain and bowel movement frequency in patients with diarrhea, but may cause adverse reactions such as ischemic colitis, so caution should be exercised when using them. Partial agonists of the 5-HT4 receptor have been discontinued because of their increased risk of cardiovascular ischemic events.

(6) Antipsychotic drugs: For patients with severe abdominal pain who are not responsive to the above treatments, especially those with obvious mental symptoms, appropriate administration of sedatives, antidepressants, and antianxiety drugs may be helpful.

(7) Probiotics can adjust the ecological balance of the host's intestinal microbiota and are suitable for IBS patients with intestinal flora imbalance.

4. Traditional Chinese Medicine Treatment

Traditional Chinese medicine divides IBS into syndromes such as large intestine dryness and heat syndrome, mixed cold and heat syndrome, spleen and stomach weakness syndrome, liver qi invading the spleen syndrome, and liver depression and qi stagnation syndrome. Through syndrome differentiation and treatment, acupuncture and other methods, certain therapeutic effects have been achieved in the treatment of IBS, but further research is needed in the future.