[Electrogastroenterographic study of the digestive motor effects of prolonged psychotropic treatment]

Functional digestive complaints are frequent in psychiatri patients: simple constipation, which cannot be explained solely by the loss of the sensation of rectal fullness; occlusions, occasionally hemorragies; the late complication of dolichomegacolon (Bourgeois, 1973). In 160 subjects, an attempt to understand the physio-pathology were made by recording diurnal digestive motor activity using skin electrodes placed on the abdomen and extremities (electrogastroenterography or E.G.E.G.). A hypoactive E.G.E.G. was observed in 2/3 of 18 psychotic depressive patients, in 3/4 of 36 schizophrenies. The nocive effect of giving sedative phenothiazine and antiparkinsonian drugs (trihexyphenidyl or ethybenzatropine) during long periods is clear. Whereas non sedative phenothiazine and clotiapine gicen in small doses, do not have an undesirable effect. Sulpiride has been used in gastroduodenal dyskinesia. The dyskinesia noted by the E.G.E.G., sometimes found in the large intestin, were found in 55% of 30 patients with caracter disorders; they coincide with the high frequency of electro-encephalogram dysrythmies. Finally, in hysterical patients, one usually observes normal E.G.E.G., tracings which confirms the clinical observation that hysterical and psychosomatic symptoms, may succeed each other, but do not appear at the same time. In the same categories of patients, no longer treated in a classical psychiatric environment but in a group with institutional objectives, the same clinic results were obtained with fewer digestive disturbances. This tends to show the inutility and nocivity of excessive doses of psychotropic drugs given alone or in complexe association.