Once-daily bedtime dosing regimen of cimetidine in the treatment of gastric ulcer.

In a double-blind study of 163 patients with benign chronic gastric ulcer, 83 were randomly assigned to receive 800 mg of cimetidine once daily at bedtime for six weeks and 80 received placebo. After six weeks of treatment, the ulcers were healed in 76% of the cimetidine-treated patients and in 55% of the placebo group (P less than 0.003). Within two weeks of starting cimetidine treatment, over 60% of the patients were without daytime or nighttime pain. At six weeks. 77% of the cimetidine-treated patients and 67% of the placebo group were without daytime pain and 89% and 74% (P less than 0.05), respectively, were without nighttime pain. The proportion of pain-free nights and days increased each week in the cimetidine-treated patients. Transient and self-limited adverse experiences were reported by 13% of the cimetidine-treated patients and by 15% of the placebo group. The results achieved in the present study with a once-daily, bedtime dose of cimetidine are similar to those seen in patients given cimetidine twice and four times daily.