Approaches to the treatment of visceral pain

Great advances have been made in the past decade in our understanding of visceral pain, in particular irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). As a consequence of these breakthroughs, a number of mechanistically differing, therapeutic treatments are currently available or in clinical trials. Experimental medicine studies on compounds in development provide favourable early indications that these therapies may show efficacy for the treatment of visceral pain and suggest a promising future for many patients that currently suffer with visceral pain syndromes. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd.