Figure. Data from 83 studies of the use of cimetidine or ranitidine for duodenal ulcer disease. In all cases, ulcers and ulcer healing were diagnosed endoscopically. Most studies lasted 4 weeks; a few were a bit shorter or longer. Sample sizes ranged from 12 to 210 participants (mean, 58). The quality of these studies was generally good for the era in which they were conducted (mostly between 1976 and 1986), although probably not fully adequate by contemporary standards. This analysis differs from the ordinary, in which placebo and active treatments are combined in an odds ratio, relative risk, or risk difference. The point of this analysis is not, however, to determine whether antisecretory medication is effective; clearly it is. The issue is the relationship between the pharmacologic and the meaningful dimensions of treatment. (A detailed account of these studies is available elsewhere [42].).

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