Clinical Gastroenterology Vol.18 No.4(1)

Theme Diagnosis and Treatment of Non-ulcer Dyspepsia
Title Changes in Concept of Functional Dyspepsia
Publish Date 2003/04
Author Michio Hongo Department of Comprehensive Medicine, Tohoku University Hospital
Author Manabu Satake Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Tohoku University Hospital
[ Summary ] We see many patients who complain about dyspeptic symptoms without any evidence of organic lesions nor biochemical changes to explain the patients' complaints. Such conditions are termed gastroptosis/gastric atony and gastric spasm, neurogenic gastritis, or chronic gastritis, and considered to be non-ulcer dyspepsia (NUD), according to the diagnostic techniques available ateach moment. However, the term 'functional dyspepsia' is preferred among investigators at the present time. The concept of the pathogenesis of such conditions has also changed from time to time in relation to impaired gastric wall tone, diagnosed by fluoroscopy, or psychoemotional contributions by psychoanalysis/interviews, to gastric mucosal inflammations by endoscopies. Gastric dysmotility was stressed as the main pathogenic factor for dyspeptic symptoms when motility studies were popular. This has now shifted to the visceral perception of abnormalities, judged by a variety of new approaches. Such changes were affected by the modalities of technical approaches available at the particular time.
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