The irritable bowel syndrome is classified ad "disturbance of intestinal motility without an identifiable anatomic substrate". However, the clear etiopathogenetic implications of a psychosomatic nature complicate the search for an adequate therapeutic strategy. Based on this clinical experience, we set out to check the importance of a spasmolytic with a benzodiazepine and the tolerability of this type of combination. We therefore compared the results in 60 patients with irritable bowel syndrome of 8 weeks' treatment with tablets containing octylonium bromide (OB) 20 mg plus diazepam (DZ) 2 mg or OB 40 mg + 2 mg DZ. The doubling of the spasmolytic without increasing the daily dose of anxiolytic appeared to be useful for reducing the symptoms typical for the irritable bowel syndrome. In addition, the combination was found to be perfectly tolerated.