title: Gut pain & visceral hypersensitivity.
abstract: Visceral pain is a highly complex entity whose experience is variable in health and disease. It can occur in patients with organic disease and also in those without any readily identifiable structural or biochemical abnormality such as in the functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGID). Despite considerable progress in our understanding of the culpable underlying mechanisms significant knowledge gaps remain, representing a significant unmet need in gastroenterology. A key, but not universal, pathological feature is that patients with FGID often display heightened sensitivity to experimental gut stimulation, termed visceral hypersensitivity. A plethora of factors have been proposed to account for this epiphenomenon including peripheral sensitization, central sensitization, aberrant central processing, genetic, psychological and abnormalities within the stress responsive systems. Further research is needed, bringing together complementary research themes from a diverse array of academic disciplines ranging from gastroenterology to nociceptive physiology to functional neuro-imaging, to address this unmet need.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Shrewsbury & Telford Hospitals NHS Trust, Princess Royal Hospital, Apley Castle, Telford, Shropshire, UK ; Neurogastroenterology Group, Blizard Institute of Cell & Molecular Science, Wingate Institute of Neurogastroenterology, Barts and the London School of Medicine & Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Adam D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Farmer
authors.affiliation: Neurogastroenterology Group, Blizard Institute of Cell & Molecular Science, Wingate Institute of Neurogastroenterology, Barts and the London School of Medicine & Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Qasim
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Aziz
keywords: Visceral pain; functional gastrointestinal disorders; irritable bowel syndrome