Cimetidine for Benign Gastric Ulcer

To the Editor: The recent report of Isenberg et al.¹ and the editorial in the same issue (June 2)² did not include several important aspects of cimetidine treatment. Compliance was not measured; more than 10 per cent of the enrolled subjects dropped out by discontinuing medication or not keeping follow-up appointments; and there was no report of the side effects, other than diarrhea, associated with cimetidine, low-dose antacid, and placebo. These are serious omissions, considering the potentially serious interaction of cimetidine with the metabolism of many commonly used drugs, the increasingly recognized association of changes in mental status with cimetidine,.