Therapeutic effects of famotidine on chronic symptomatic gastritis: subgroup analysis from FUTURE study

A therapeutic strategy for symptomatic patients with chronic gastritis has not been established. Gastric acid has been reported to induce a variety of unpleasant abdominal symptoms. We investigated whether the histamine H2 receptor antagonist famotidine attenuated upper abdominal symptoms in patients with chronic gastritis.

In this multicenter prospective single-arm open-label study, 10,311 patients with a clinical diagnosis of chronic symptomatic gastritis were enrolled and each patient was administered famotidine at 20 mg/day for 4 weeks. The intensity levels of upper abdominal symptoms, epigastralgia, epigastric fullness, and heartburn were evaluated using a face scale (grade 0-4). Abdominal symptom-related quality of life (QOL) impairment was also evaluated, using an Izumo scale before and after famotidine administration. In a subgroup analysis, symptomatic responses in patients diagnosed with functional dyspepsia (FD) according to the Rome III criteria were analyzed.

In 8,460 patients who completed the protocol, famotidine administration significantly attenuated epigastralgia, epigastric fullness, and heartburn, and famotidine also attenuated abdominal symptom-related QOL impairment in all patients with chronic symptomatic gastritis, in those with FD-like symptoms without organic disease, and in those with FD as defined by the Rome III criteria.

Famotidine is effective to relieve abdominal symptoms and improve QOL, not only in patients with Rome III-defined FD, but also in those with chronic symptomatic gastritis.