In an open trial, 100 patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia were randomized to receive either ranitidine 150 mg twice daily (n = 47) or sucralfate 1 g four times a day (n = 53) for four weeks. An 'intention to treat' analysis revealed that global relief in symptoms was significantly more frequent in the sucralfate group than in the ranitidine group after two weeks (77.4% vs 59.6%; p less than 0.05) and four weeks (86.8% vs 63.8%; p less than 0.001) of treatment. It is concluded that sucralfate is superior to ranitidine in providing symptomatic relief in patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia.