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).

Comparison between continuous and intermittent infusion regimens of cimetidine in ulcer patients.

The relative effectiveness of intermittent infusions and primed continuous infusions of cimetidine in the maintenance of intragastric pH greater than or equal to 4.0 was evaluated in a double-blind crossover trial in 26 patients who had active or healed gastroduodenal ulcers. During the intermittent phase, each patient received 300 mg cimetidine intravenously every 6 hours.

Efficacy of once-daily cimetidine in preventing recurrence of duodenal ulcer.

In a prospective multicenter trial, 88 patients with acute duodenal ulcers that were healed with ranitidine were randomly assigned to receive maintenance treatment with either cimetidine 400 mg (n = 45) or placebo (n = 43) at bedtime for six months. Ten percent of the patients experienced moderate or severe pain both during the day and at night while on placebo during the maintenance phase. The average proportion of cimetidine patients experiencing moderate or severe pain during the day or night was 50% and 80% lower than placebo, respectively.

The efficacy of cimetidine in the treatment of "resistant" duodenal ulcers.

In a prospective multicenter trial, 43 patients with acute duodenal ulcers unhealed after four weeks of treatment with an H2-receptor antagonist, ranitidine, were switched to treatment with another H2-receptor antagonist, cimetidine. Sixty-eight percent of the unhealed patients were successfully healed; of these patients, 81% were free of daytime pain and 89% were free of nighttime pain. Of those with residual pain, 71% and 50% showed improvement in daytime and nighttime pain severity, respectively.