Choung Rok Seon
Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Korean J Gastroenterol. 2012 Dec;60(6):345-8. doi: 10.4166/kjg.2012.60.6.345.
Functional gastrointestinal (GI) disorders are common in the general population. Based on the Rome III classification, these disorders are mutually exclusive disorders keeping the homogeneity of each functional GI disorder in research area. In contrast, many population and clinical studies have reported a considerably high rate of overlap between functional GI disorders. The overlap of functional GI disorders over other intestinal diseases might simply occur by chance due to a highly prevalent disorder. Moreover, functional GI disorders is considered a chronic stable disorder that may wax and wane for several years. However, a recent study about the natural history of functional GI disorders showed substantial transition among functional GI disorders over time. The natural history of functional GI disorders with overlapping other functional GI disorders are still in infancy and better understanding of these will be important in determining the efficacy of future therapeutic interventions.
功能性胃肠（GI）疾病在普通人群中很常见。根据罗马III分类，这些疾病是相互排斥的，在研究领域保持每种功能性胃肠疾病的同质性。相比之下，许多人群和临床研究报告称，功能性胃肠疾病之间的重叠率相当高。功能性胃肠疾病与其他肠道疾病的重叠可能仅仅是由于一种高度流行的疾病偶然发生的。此外，功能性胃肠疾病被认为是一种慢性稳定疾病，可能会在几年内起伏波动。然而，最近一项关于功能性胃肠疾病自然史的研究表明，随着时间的推移，功能性胃肠疾病之间会发生实质性的转变。伴有其他功能性胃肠疾病重叠的功能性胃肠疾病的自然史仍处于起步阶段，更好地了解这些情况对于确定未来治疗干预措施的疗效至关重要。
