The effects of proton pump inhibition on patient‐reported severity of dyspepsia when receiving dual anti‐platelet therapy with clopidogrel and low‐dose aspirin: analysis from the Clopidogrel and the Optimization of Gastrointestinal Events Trial

BACKGROUND: Dual anti-platelet therapy with clopidogrel and low-dose aspirin increases the risk for gastrointestinal clinical events. Omeprazole has been shown to significantly reduce these events without compromising cardiovascular safety in patients treated with dual anti-platelet therapy. Whether or not omeprazole improves patient-reported outcomes is undetermined. AIM: To assess the impact of prophylactic omeprazole with background dual anti-platelet therapy on patient-reported symptoms of dyspepsia compared to placebo. METHODS: We analysed results of the Severity of Dyspepsia Assessment questionnaires collected in the Clopidogrel and the Optimization of Gastrointestinal Events Trial. RESULTS: Patient-reported outcome data from 3759 subjects were available for analysis. At 4 weeks, the mean scores of pain intensity and nonpain symptoms were lower in the omeprazole group (5.61 ± 0.17 vs. 6.40 ± 0.17, P = 0.001, and 10.61 ± 0.07 vs. 11.00 ± 0.07, P < 0.001 respectively). These differences were maintained at 24 weeks (5.91 ± 0.35 vs. 7.10 ± 0.37, P = 0.020 for pain intensity; 10.36 ± 0.12 vs. 10.93 ± 0.13, P = 0.001 for nonpain symptoms). After adjusting for covariates there were no statistically significant differences between the groups in the percent of patients with dyspepsia during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to reducing the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, statistically significant benefits with prophylactic omeprazole use on both pain and nonpain symptoms were evident at 4 weeks and sustained through 24 weeks. The clinical significance of these overall results is unclear, but greater in patients with pain at baseline.