aswander

I'd like to know what PPI/H2 therapy has been effective and not effective for you. It will be very helpful to have one thread where we can objectively see which drugs have been the most useful. Please provide the following information:

1. Your condition: GERD or LPR

2. Drug therapy that works: Name of medication, and dosage schedule (1x or two times per day, taken together, or separated into morning/night dosages).
How effective is the drug therapy at relieving your sympotms? How long have you been on the effective drug therapy? How long did it take for this drug to relieve your symptoms?

3. Drug therapies that have not worked for you, including dosages.

I'll start:

1. I have LPR (really really bad before meds). My worst problem was a severe, unrelenting chronic cough. I reflux during the day when I am upright and the symptoms stop when I am lying down at night.

2. Nexium is very effective for me. I take 2 doses a day (40 mg per dose). I take the 2 doses together, first thing in the morning. I have tried separating the doses (1 at night 1 in the morning) and my symptoms come back. I give Nexium an A+ for effectiveness - it relieves about 95% of my symptoms. I get some breakthrough symptoms when I eat baddie foods or do stomach crunches. I've been on the Nexium regimen for 4 years and it still works incredibly well. I first started taking Nexium at the 1 pill a day level 4 1/2 years ago for 6 months, and it did not relieve any symptoms at this dosage level. On the very day I started taking 2 pills together 4 years ago, my symptoms cleared up in 30 minutes - almost instant recovery.

3. After already being treated successfully with Nexium, I experimented with the (significantly cheaper) Prilosec. All my symptoms returned within 45 days, even after increasing the dosage to 4 pills a day. I also tried Protonix 2x per day, and about 75% of my symptoms came back. I switched back to Nexium after that.