Diazepam in the treatment of dyspnoea in the 'Pink Puffer' syndrome.

Diazepam, in moderate doses, has been used in a placebo controlled, single blind study to treat dyspnoea in four patients severely disabled from chronic airflow obstruction. The subjects had the 'pink puffer syndrome', usually associated with emphysema and were not hypercapnoeic nor severely hypoxic at rest. With diazepam, they experienced a striking reduction in dyspnoea, and an improvement in effort tolerance; in addition the slope of the ventilation/CO2 response curve was reduced. There were no changes in resting blood gases. Psychiatric examination at the end of the study did not reveal prominent anxiety, although three patients were depressed. The use of diazepam to treat dyspnoea in this syndrome is safe in the absence of any acute infection