The "spastic colon" syndrome: therapeutic and pathophysiologic considerations.

Low doses of d-amphetamine plus propranolol rapidly improved the abdominal pain in 165 "spastic colon" patients. Concomitantly, these drugs reduced the sigmoidal hypertonicity and the rectal inhibition found in the manometric studies performed in some of those patients. The sigmoidal tone and phasic activity were also decreased by anticholinergic drugs. These results suggest that a cholinergic-serotonergic hyperactivity of the myenteric plexus may be responsible for the "spastic colon" syndrome.