EDITORIAL Role of cholecystokinin and central serotonergic receptors in functional dyspepsia

Symptoms of functional dyspepsia are characterized by upper abdominal discomfort or pain, early satiety, post-prandial fullness, bloating, nausea and vomiting. It is a chronic disorder, with symptoms more than 3 mo per year, and no evidence of organic diseases. Dysfunctional motility, altered visceral sensation, and psychosocial fac-tors have all been identifi ed as major pathophysiological mechanisms. It is believed that these pathophysiological mechanisms interact to produce the observed symptoms. Dyspepsia has been categorized into three subgroups based on dominant symptoms. Dysmotility-like dyspep-sia describes a subgroup of patients whose symptom complex is usually related to a gastric sensorimotor dys-function. The brain-gut peptide cholecystokinin (CCK