Rome IV Diagnostic Criteria for Irritable Bowel Syndrome

The Rome IV criteria are the internationally accepted diagnostic standard for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), published in 2016 by the Rome Foundation. These criteria define IBS as recurrent abdominal pain (≥1 day per week for ≥3 months) associated with altered bowel habits, without structural or biochemical abnormalities. IBS is subtyped into four patterns—IBS-constipation predominant (IBS-C), IBS-diarrhea predominant (IBS-D), IBS-mixed (IBS-M), and IBS-unclassified (IBS-U)—based on stool consistency patterns.