Publisher's Synopsis
Representing a significant departure from current thinking about functional bowel disorders, this work addresses and considers 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 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.
