Approach to the adult patient with chronic diarrhea: A literature review

Obesity is associated with colitis in women but not necessarily causal relationship

“…The samples of this article are men and women who have undergone selective outpatient colonoscopy due to chronic diarrhea. Chronic diarrhea can be caused by many reasons, such as taking drugs, intestinal diseases, colon diseases, postoperative diarrhea[ 2 ]. Excessive growth of small intestinal bacteria, malabsorption of bile acids and food intolerance are also the specific causes of diarrhea[ 3 ].…”

Drug-Related Enteropathy

“…Diarrhea is one of the most common symptoms in the gastroenterologist clinical practice. It is defined as an increase in the average number of bowel movements, stool output and/or weight, or a reduced stool consistency, and according to duration, can be acute if it lasts less than 7 days, persistent acute (>7 days and < 14 days), sub-acute (>14 days and < 28 days), or chronic (>4 weeks) [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Most episodes of acute diarrhea occur as a result of infectious agents or dietary transgression.…”

“…Acute persistent and subacute diarrhea may be caused by unidentified microorganisms or might be secondary to medications [1]. Chronic diarrhea is one of those conditions with the broadest differential diagnosis, that includes anatomical and/or physiologic abnormalities of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, inflammatory or neoplastic conditions, malabsorptive disorders, drug side effects, dysbiosis, functional as well as postinfectious syndromes such as small intestine bowel overgrowth (SIBO), functional diarrhea or post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome (Pi-IBS) [2][3][4][5][6]. One of the most common, albeit rarely unconsidered causes, is drug-side effect [7,8].…”

Effect of Lactobacillus plantarum P9 on defecation, quality of life and gut microbiome in individuals with chronic diarrhoea: Protocol for a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial

“…And an individual can be diagnosed as chronic diarrhoea when diarrhoea lasts more than 4 weeks [ 4 , 5 ]. The prevalence of chronic diarrhoea is estimated to be 3–5% among general population [ 6 , 7 ] and 9.6–14.2% in the elderly (aged more than 60) [ 8 , 9 ]. It may disturb the patient's quality of life, work performance and well-being as well as increase their medical expenses [ 10 ], and the chronic diarrhoea-related economical loss just from work-loss is estimated to be approximate $350, 000, 000 annually [ 11 ].…”