Of 1,400 consecutive patients applying to an outpatient clinic for treatment of alcoholism, 477 complained of upper abdominal dyspepsia. After 2 weeks of abstinence, 78 had persisting complaints; of these, 72% had oesophagitis at endoscopy. The 53 patients with oesophagitis as the sole diagnosis were randomized to treatment with either ranitidine or a combination of alginate/antacid chewing tablets and metoclopramide for 6 weeks in a double-blind, double-dummy design. Twenty-five patients left the study during the observation time due to relapse of alcoholism, and were only observed until then. No significant differences were found between the treatment groups concerning the course of symptoms and endoscopic or histological improvement.