Your activity: 8 p.v.

Causes of chronic diarrhea

Causes of chronic diarrhea
Common
  • IBS-diarrhea
  • Bile acid diarrhea
  • Diet
    • FODMAP malabsorption
      • Lactase deficiency
    • Artificial sweeteners (eg, sorbitol, xylol in chewing gum, soft drinks)
    • Caffeine (eg, coffee, coke, energy drinks)
    • Excess alcohol
    • Excess liquorice
  • Colonic neoplasia
  • Inflammatory bowel disease
    • Ulcerative colitis
    • Crohn's disease
    • Microscopic colitis
  • Celiac disease
  • Drugs
    • Antibiotics, in particular macrolides (eg, erythromycin)
    • Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
    • Magnesium-containing products
    • Hypoglycemic agents (eg, metformin, gliptins)
    • Antineoplastic agents
    • Others (eg, furosemide, Olestra)
  • Recurrent Clostridioides (formerly Clostridium) difficile diarrhea
  • Overflow diarrhea
Infrequent
  • Small bowel bacterial overgrowth
  • Mesenteric ischaemia
  • Lymphoma
  • Surgical causes (eg, small bowel resections, fecal incontinence, internal fistula)
  • Chronic pancreatitis
  • Radiation enteropathy
  • Pancreatic carcinoma
  • Hyperthyroidism
  • Diabetes
  • Giardiasis (and other chronic infection)
  • Cystic fibrosis
Rare
  • Other small bowel enteropathies (eg, Whipple's disease, tropical sprue, amyloid, intestinal lymphangiectasia)
  • Hypoparathyroidism
  • Addison's disease
  • Hormone secreting tumors (VIPoma, gastrinoma, carcinoid)
  • Autonomic neuropathy
  • Factitious diarrhea
  • Brainerd diarrhea (possible infectious cause not identified)
Adapted with permission from: Arasaradnam RP, Brown S, Forbes A, et al. Guidelines for the investigation of chronic diarrhoea in adults: British Society of Gastroenterology, 3rd edition. Gut 2018; 67(8):1380-1389. Copyright © 2018 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.
Graphic 120862 Version 2.0