Pharmacotherapy of gastrointestinal motor disorders

Pharmacotherapy of gastrointestinal motor disorders is complicated by the large variety of drug targets and their interactions, the complex relation between contractile patterns and propulsion and the occurrence of regional and species differences. A number of drug classes are discussed: cholinergic agonists/antagonists, dopamine-antagonists, calcium-entry blockers and spasmolytics, serotonin-5-HT4-agonists, cholecystokinin-antagonists, motilin-agonists, 5-HT3-antagonists, opiate agonists, and laxatives. The number of drug classes is increasing rapidly allowing a more specific treatment for the large number of gastrointestinal disorders related to disturbed motility. An interesting new development is the search for compounds interfering with transmitters of the non-adrenergic non-cholinergic nerves of the enteric nervous system a.o. nitric oxide (NO).