Publication Name	World Journal of Gastroenterology
Manuscript ID	117258
Country	Greece

Category	Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Manuscript Type	Editorial
Article Title	Reflux self-medication and limited healthcare consultation: Systemic inadequacies in Barrett’s esophagus screening, surveillance, and management
Manuscript Source	Invited Manuscript
All Author List	Stavros P Papadakos, Ioannis Katsaros, Efstathia Liatsou, Alexandra Argyrou and Dimitrios Schizas
Funding Agency and Grant Number
Corresponding Author	Dimitrios Schizas, PhD, Professor, The First Department of Surgery, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, General Hospital of Athens "Laiko", 17 Agiou Thoma Street, Goudi, Athens 11527, Greece. schizasad@gmail.com
Key Words	Barrett’s esophagus; Screening; Gastroesophageal reflux disease; Obesity; Self-medication
Core Tip	Current models for identifying Barrett’s esophagus (BE) rely on patients seeking care for gastroesophageal reflux disease, yet more than half of symptomatic individuals never consult a physician and many mask symptoms with over-the-counter therapy. This creates a largely invisible high-risk population, further amplified by rising obesity and inconsistent surveillance quality. Evidence from population-based studies, registry data, and emerging non-endoscopic tools highlights the need to shift from symptom-driven screening to proactive, risk-based, and system-level strategies to improve BE detection and prevent esophageal adenocarcinoma.
Citation	Papadakos SP, Katsaros I, Liatsou E, Argyrou A, Schizas D. Reflux self-medication and limited healthcare consultation: systemic inadequacies in Barrett’s esophagus screening, surveillance, and management. World J Gastroenterol 2026; In press

Received	2025-12-03 00:55
Peer-Review Started	2025-12-03 00:55
First Decision by Editorial Office Director	2025-12-24 10:37
Return for Revision	2025-12-24 10:37
Revised	2025-12-30 12:25
Publication Fee Transferred
Second Decision by Editor	2026-02-10 02:43
Second Decision by Editor-in-Chief
Final Decision by Editorial Office Director	2026-02-10 11:39
Articles in Press	2026-02-10 11:39
Edit the Manuscript by Language Editor
Typeset the Manuscript

ISSN	1007-9327 (print) and 2219-2840 (online)
Open Access	This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
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