Management of the Patient with Constipation Complaint in Primary Care

Constipation is commonly encountered symptom in the community. Prescribed medicines and admissions to health centers in order to relieve the symptoms of constipation are among causes of health expenses. For instance only in In USA, 2,5 million people admitting to a physician with the complaint of constipation each year, and more than 800 million dollars are spent in a year for laxatives. The description of constipation has been made by Rome III Diagnostic Criteria, Task Force Criteria and Bristol Stool Scale in the recent years. Constipation can arise due to many reasons. The disease may occur secondary to environmental, structural, systemic, neurological diseases and drugs. History, physical examination and laboratory tests are important to determine the stage of diagnosis. The most important subjects to be emphasized at the time of treatment are life style interventions. There are many treatment alternatives depending on the characteristics of patients.