[The practitioner faced with anxiety and somatic symptoms (author's transl)]

In order to determine the psychopharmacological profile of tiapride, the authors carried out 3 studies. The first study of ten resistant psychiatric cases permitted us to detect the direction of later studies. The object of the second was to analyse the neurovisceral properties and the action of tiapride on somatic symptoms due to anxiety in 25 ambulatory patients. The last study was a therapeutic approach. Tiapride appears to be one of the best drugs for anxiety in one of the 3 following circumstances: a paroxysmal or chronic somatic expression, depression, or behaviour suggesting latent and masked psychosis or early psychosis. Tiapride is tolerated in the same way as a neuroleptic for even in low dosage (150-300 mg/day) may appear undesirable side effects of extrapyramidal type. On the other hand, and contrary to sulpiride, neuro-endocrine effects are exceptional.