Recurrent gastroesophageal symptoms and precordial pain in a gastrectomized man improved by amitriptyline. Physiologic, metabolic, endocrine, neurochemical and psychiatric findings.

A 57-year-old white man presenting frequent recurrent chest and precordial pain, heartburn (pyrosis) and post-prandial vomiting for the previous 33 years (one to two years after Bilroth II gastrectomy) was submitted to cardiovascular, endoscopic, radiologic and biochemical studies with negative results. Doctors recommended surgical operation because of an excessively long afferent loop, Several biologic markers were performed at our hospital (intestinal pharmacomanometry, i.m. clonidine test, plasma neurotransmitters plus hormones, oral glucose tolerance test, plasma insulin, etc.), revealing an autonomic nervous system (ANS) imbalance characterized by hyperactivity of the cholinergic plus hypoactivity of the noradrenergic central system. Psychiatric evaluation demonstrated Dysthymic Depression. Treatment with a small daily dose of amitriptyline (a drug which enhances central noradrenergic activity and exerts powerful anticholinergic effects) suppressed symptoms, normalized physiological plus hormonal plus neurochemical parameters and made depressive manifestations disappear. The results suggest that the ANS imbalance was related to depressive syndrome and potentiated by neurohumoral disorders depending on duodenal and jejunal exclusion, and on intestinal post-prandial hyper-osmolarity.