Impact of Acotiamide Affects Meal-related Symptoms and Lower Abdominal Symptoms in Functional Dyspepsia in Japan

Background: To clarify whether acotiamide improve postprandial distress symptoms and lower abdominal symptoms through affecting hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in FD patients. Methods: We used Rome III criteria to evaluate upper and lower abdominal symptoms. Twenty-five functional dyspepsia (FD) patients were treated with acotiamide (300mg/day) for 4 weeks. Anxiety was evaluated using STAI-state/-trait. We measured ACTH and cortisol levels in FD patients. Results: Acotiamide treatment significantly (p=0.007, p=0.003) improved postprandial fullness and early satiety in 4 weeks treatment in FD patients compared to those in pretreatment. In contrast, acotiamide treatment improved lower abdominal symptoms, while insignificantly. Acotiamide did not also affect anxiety using STAI-state/-trait. Acotiamide treatment for 4 weeks did not affect ACTH and cortisol levels in FD patients. Conclusions: Further studies will be needed to clarify how acotiamide improve clinical symptoms in FD patients.