Welcome to the MedLibrary.org Wikipedia Supplement on Functional constipation -- Please Click to Return to Front Page

Functional constipation is constipation that does not have a physical (anatomical) or physiological (hormonal or other body chemistry) cause. It may have a neurological, psychological or psychosomatic cause. A person with functional constipation may be healthy, yet has difficulty defecating.

Functional constipation, as medically defined by the Rome III criteria,^{citation needed} has many causes, including:

• Anismus
• Descending perineum syndrome
• Hirschsprung's disease
• Other inability or unwillingness to control the external anal sphincter, which normally is under voluntary control
• A bad diet
• an unwillingness to defecate
• nervous reactions, including prolonged and/or chronic stress and anxiety, that close the inner anal sphincter, a muscle that is not under voluntary control
• deeper psychosomatic disorders which sometimes affect digestion and the absorption of water in the colon

See also

• Functional symptom

This medical sign article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 18 July 2008, at 06:33.

Wikipedia Authorship and Review

Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.

Wikipedia Usage Guidelines

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Functional constipation".

The URL for this specific entry is:

• http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/Functional_constipation

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.