Effect of Domperidone in Patients with Nonulcer Dyspepsia: A Double-Blind, Placebocontrolled Study

Thirty patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia were included in a 4-week controlled double-blind trial of domperidone and a placebo. A questionnaire concerning symptoms was completed at the beginning of the study and after 4 weeks of treatment. Studies of gastric emptying, using a Tc-99m-labeled solid-phase meal, were performed at baseline and after 4 weeks of treatment. After 4 weeks of treatment, the symptom scores were significantly improved in the domperidone group (p＜0.01), and also in the placebo group (p＜0.05). Thirteen patients (43.3%) had abnormal gastric emptying at baseline, defined as a half-emptying time of mean ±1 SD (from studies of normal controls). There was a moderate improvement in the half-emptying time in the domperidone group (p＜0.05), but the correlation between improvement of gastric emptying and symptom scores was not statistically significant. The results of our study showed that 1)domperidone was an effective drug for the treatment of the symptoms of non-ulcer dyspepsia, and 2) that a radioisotopic gastric emptying study may be used as an objective method for identifying patients with abnormal gastric emptying.