Is acid relevant in the genesis of dyspeptic symptoms associated with nonerosive reflux disease?

[table: see text] A consistent subset of patients with NERD suffers from symptoms centered in the upper part of the abdomen that are more characteristic of functional dyspepsia than reflux disease. The cause of this overlap is still unclear, but acid has been implicated as one of the possible common pathophysiological factors responsible for these two categories of upper gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. Many physiological investigations and the modest success of proton pump inhibitors in resolving dyspeptic symptoms associated with typical reflux syndrome seem to support the concept that functional dyspepsia and NERD are two separate entities, which need to be treated with different drugs.