Diarrhea, the Irritating Problem!

Diarrhea constitutes a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. It is common in developing countries. Diarrhea is too frequent, often precipitates passage of poorly formed stools, with excess water in feces.

In a week around 2-3 patients come to me with the complaint of diarrhea, in which it is most common among children than adults. One fine morning Mr. Albert Simpson came to me with a complaint. “Dr. I have disabling symptom, gastric discomfort and feeling very uneasy. I am feeling very weak and lost my appetite too.” Mr. Albert, you suffer from diarrhea, due to this excess water is passed in feces which leads to weakness. You need rehydration therapy which helps out to regain back the water and electrolytes.

Treatment of Diarrheas:

Generally the treatment depends upon its nature, cause and severity. Most of the diarrheas are self limiting, the treatment includes:
* Treatment of fluid depletion
* Maintenance of balanced nutrition
* Drug therapy


Treatment of fluid depletion:

This includes the oral rehydration, given orally when severe fluid loss is seen. This therapy includes electrolytes like sodium chloride, potassium chloride, glucose, water and trisodium citrate. This therapy can be administered intravenously apart from oral consumption. This can be administered in the period of 2-4 hours which restores hydration in 6 hours approximately.

Maintenance of Balanced Nutrition:

Simple foods like boiled potatoes, rice, chicken soup, banana, and buffalo milk should be given to the patients. The diet should be balanced to avoid malnutrition associated with diarrhea. Starvation prolongs this and may worsen the condition.

Drug therapy:

Apart from the maintenance of proper nutrition, drug therapy is also the most important factor in the treatment of diarrhea. The general classified anti-diarrheal agents include:

* Absorbants
* Antimotility agents
* Antisecretory agents


In this way, I treated Mr. Albert and he came to me after a week by taking proper treatment. Do you think he should follow the same procedure? Or should he come to me next time? Comment on the same!