[Recent experience in the short-term etizolam treatment of irritable colon syndrome]

Twenty-two subjects (8 males, 14 females, mean age 36 years, range 21-57) with symptoms of diffuse pain or fullness in a lower abdominal quadrant, without repercussions on general health but with chronic anxiety of which the subjects complained or which emerged during confidential conversation with the physicians, were enrolled in our outpatient department for liver and gastroenterologic pathology at the Institute of Internal Medicine and Metabolic Disorders, II Faculty of Medicine, Naples University. After an average 30-day wash-out period, patients were treated with etizolam, a new psychoactive drug for somatized anxiety. Mean dosage and duration of treatment were 1 tablet twice daily for 25 days. Painful symptoms disappeared in 16.3% of patients, decreased in 38.3% and remained stationary in 22.7% and became worse in 22.7%. Number of bowel motions decreased in 14 patients (63.6%, from an average of 2.04 to 1.56). It can therefore be concluded that etizolam treatment was effective in subjects with colon disorders accompanied by chronic anxiety syndrome or that became acute as result of stressful socio-economic or affective situations or personal disappointment.