Abstract
The late 1970s formed an opportune time to measure the effect of recent advances in the treatment of peptic ulcer (PU). Beginning in August 1977, the Food and Drug Administration had approved cimetidine to treat duodenal ulcers (DU). Combined with cimetidine's wide distribution and use, this step made it feasible to assess the effect of this innovation on the frequency of PU disease in populations; for some time before, this incidence had been diminishing in the United States and other developed countries.
In that same era in the United States, hospital inpatient care had come to be viewed as costly, even extravagant for many conditions. Staff of prepayment programs and other health personnel often implied that charges for drugs were excessive. Related to antiulcer drugs, utilization data came promptly from the National Disease and Therapeutic Index. These data showed that DU patients attending the offices of private physicians were weaned swiftly from antacids to cimetidine as their main therapy. It thus seemed timely to produce information that would facilitate cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness assessments of cimetidine's impact on DU.
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