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VIDEO: Expert argues for new name for functional GI disorders
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PHILADELPHIA — In this exclusive video perspective from the American College of Gastroenterology Annual Meeting, Nicholas Talley, MD, PhD, FACG, from the University of Newcastle in Australia, discusses the changing world of functional gastrointestinal disorders.
“It’s a very exciting time,” Talley told Healio Gastroenterology and Liver Disease. “We’ve got a long way to go, but I’m very hopeful we’re going to be able to actually offer a cure in the future for some of the folks with these problems.”
Talley said evidence is emerging that functional disorders might be caused by gut inflammation, and immune activation might be linked to gut and extraintestinal symptoms in at least some cases.
Additionally, Talley said the GI community needs to discuss the naming of functional disorders.
“Functional is a terrible term,” he said. “It’s true that being psychologically distressed, being stressed, is possibly one way people may develop functional gut disorders, but it’s actually the gut itself that’s the primary driver, probably in most people. So, the word functional is just meaningless.”
Disclosure: Talley reports financial ties to Sax Institute, Adelphi Values, Allergan, GI Therapies, Napo Pharmaceuticals, Outpost Medicine, Samsung Bioepis, Syngery, Theravance, Yuhan, Abbot, Commonwealth Diagnostics, Janssen, Pfizer, Prometheus, Rome Foundation, Salix, Medical Journal of Australia, and UpToDate.