In medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, the term functional colonic disease (or functional bowel disorder) refers to a group of bowel disorders which are characterised by chronic abdominal complaints without a structural or biochemical cause that could explain symptoms.

Examples

Functional bowel disorders include, among others:

• Functional dyspepsia
• Non-cardiac chest pain (NCCP)
• Chronic abdominal pain
• Functional constipation
  Functional constipation
  Functional constipation, known as chronic idiopathic constipation , is constipation that does not have a physical or physiological cause. It may have a neurological, psychological or psychosomatic cause...
  
  
• Irritable bowel syndrome
  Irritable bowel syndrome
  Irritable bowel syndrome is a diagnosis of exclusion. It is a functional bowel disorder characterized by chronic abdominal pain, discomfort, bloating, and alteration of bowel habits in the absence of any detectable organic cause. In some cases, the symptoms are relieved by bowel movements...
  
   (IBS)

Criteria

The Rome process

Rome process

The "Rome process" is an international effort to create scientific data to help in the diagnosis and treatment of functional gastrointestinal disorders, , such as irritable bowel syndrome, functional dyspepsia and rumination syndrome...

 has helped to define the functional gastrointestinal disorders. Successively, the Rome I, Rome II and the Rome III meetings have proposed a consensual classification system and terminology, as recommended by the Rome Coordinating Committee.