Nonulcer dyspepsia remains to this date a clinical disease entity that is diagnosed and treated empirically by considering such patients potential ulcer carriers and treating them accordingly with H2 antagonists. The purpose of this study was to assess the therapeutic effectiveness of sulglycotide in patients with nonulcer dyspepsia in a random double-blind trial vs sucralfate. One hundred and eighty-seven consecutive patients with nonulcer dyspepsia were treated with sulglycotide (oral, 200 mg t.i.d. for 6 weeks, n = 93) or with sucralfate (oral, 1 g t.i.d. for the same length of time, n = 94). Drug effectiveness was evaluated in terms of apparent clinical symptom modifications, fiberoptic endoscopy findings and histological aspects of biopsy specimens. Both treatments resulted in prompt abatement of the clinical complaints of nonulcer dyspepsia and the improvement of macroscopic gastritis at endoscopy. These results confirm the usefulness of cytoprotective drugs in nonulcer dyspepsia characterized by gastroduodenal inflammation.