Recent Advances in the Treatment of Diarrhea

The purpose of this article is to discuss recent advances in the treatment of diarrhea, both acute and chronic. Acute and chronic diarrhea generally have quite different causes and different treatments; therefore, they will be discussed separately. ACUTE DIARRHEA The major advances in this area in the last decade have been an understanding of some of the mechanisms that are involved in the pathogenesis of acute diarrhea and the development of improved classifications. Treatment has not changed greatly. Most individuals in the United States who have diarrhea improve spontaneously in one or two days and do not seek medical attention. Often treatment is not indicated. Therefore, if a patient consults a physician because of recent onset of diarrhea, the first decision to be made is whether or not to treat it at all. Minimal or no treatment is needed in instances of mild acute diarrhea in which the volume of