Early evening ranitidine administration promotes faster duodenal ulcer healing

In a prospective double-blind clinical trial, 141 patients with endoscopically diagnosed duodenal ulcer were randomly assigned to treatment with ranitidine 300 mg, taken either at 6 PM or at 10 PM. After 2 wk of treatment, 52 of 70 patients (74%) in the 6 PM treatment group had healed, compared with 32 of 64 patients (50%) taking ranitidine at 10 PM (p less than 0.01). After 4 wk, the cumulative healing rates were 100% and 94%, respectively, for the 6 PM and 10 PM treatment regimens. These results suggest that ranitidine, taken as a single daily 300-mg dose at 6 PM after dinner, provides more rapid duodenal ulcer healing than the same dose of the drug taken at 10 PM.