[The irritable colon syndrome. New therapeutic possibilities in the treatment of a frequent syndrome].

A double-blind clinical longterm trial with the musculotropic agent Mebeverine in 30 patients, suffering from the irritable colon syndrome, is reported. In 70% of patients, treated by this new antispasmodic preparation, most symptoms, related to the irregular activities of the lower alimentary tract--as abdominal cramps and distrubance of bowel habit--improved. Female patients were superior in getting symptom-free. No unpleasant drug-related side effects were seen. The double-blind controlled trial showed Mebeverine to be superior to a placebo preparation regarding relief of symptoms and demonstrates this agent to be a useful drug for controlling the symptoms of this functional disorder. The usefulness is enhanced by the fact that most of the patients studied had been pretreated by other preparations with low or limited therapeutic effectiveness. Despite facing the difficulties in documenting objective criteria of improvement in a condition such as the irritable colon, defined as a "collection of functional disorders of the colon of mixed aetiology" (Truelove), our results demonstrate that Mebeverine is able to improve abdominal cramps and disturbances of bowel habit in this common disorder without side effects, as seen with standard anticholinergic preparations.