Visceral analgesics: drugs with a great potential in functional disorders?

Irritable bowel syndrome remains an incompletely understood, common syndrome with significant unmet medical needs. In IBS patients, abdominal pain is a primary factor related to quality of life impairment, symptom severity and health care utilization, and chronic visceral hyperalgesia has been identified as an important aspect of IBS pathophysiology. However, the development of therapies aimed at reducing this hyperalgesia (visceral analgesics) has been only partially successful despite preclinical evidence supporting the potential usefulness of several preclinical compounds aimed at peripheral as well as central targets.