Which condition is a functional bowel disorder characterized by chronic abdominal pain and bloating with altered bowel habits?

• A. Gastritis
• B. Irritable Bowel Syndrome
• C. Gastroenteritis
• D. Hernia

Answer: (B)

The main concept here is a functional bowel disorder, meaning symptoms arise from how the gut works rather than from a structural problem you can see on tests. In this condition, people experience recurrent abdominal pain that is linked to changes in how often or how formed their stools are, and they often report bloating. The pain is chronic, and there isn’t an identifiable organic disease driving it. This pattern—persistent pain with altered bowel habits and bloating, without a detectable structural abnormality—best fits irritable bowel syndrome. Subtypes exist depending on whether stool pattern tends toward constipation, diarrhea, or a mix, and symptoms can fluctuate over time.

Gastritis would present with upper abdominal discomfort tied to stomach inflammation, not primarily with altered bowel habits. Gastroenteritis is an acute infection causing rapid-onset diarrhea or vomiting, not a chronic functional pattern. A hernia is a structural protrusion that can cause localized symptoms or obstruction, not a functional, chronic pain syndrome with bowel habit changes.

So the condition that matches chronic abdominal pain and bloating with altered bowel habits, in the absence of a structural disease, is irritable bowel syndrome.