The Management of Dyspepsia

Abstract

As dyspepsia is such a common complaint and the symptoms may be short-lived with no sequelae, it is important to select those patients who can be treated symptomatically from those who need early investigation. This must be done by a careful history and examination looking for evidence of organic desease or depressive illness and for predictors of organic disease, such as age greater than, say, 45, being a smoker, taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and a past history of peptic ulcer or hiatus hernia (1). Men tend to get their organic disease about 10 years earlier than women. Where there is no ‘organic’ disease, the history should be used to put the patient with NUD into a category (2), with a view to offering more specific treatment.