Pharmaceuticals

There are two main types of medications used to reduce the symptoms of gastroparesis: prokinetics and antiemetics. Prokinetic agents enhance the muscular contractions of the gastrointestinal tract, helping to move the contents of the stomach on to the duodenum and thereby speeding up gastric emptying. Antiemetic medications are used to reduce nausea and vomiting. Some gastroparesis sufferers need to take a combination of prokinetics and antiemetics, and others find relief with medications that serve both functions, such as Metoclopramide. Patients who are unable to properly digest and absorb a pill version of these medications may be given a liquid, nasal spray or an intravenous medication.

There is also some evidence that tricyclic antidepressant medications may reduce some of the symptoms of gastroparesis in some patients. This is not by treating depression, but due to other effects of the medications on gut function (probably the sensory abnormalities).