CIMETIDINE THERAPY FOR WARTS - A PLACEBO-CONTROLLED, DOUBLE-BLIND-STUDY

Background: Cimetidine, an H-2-receptor antagonist, has been used succ essfully to treat patients with mucocutaneous candidiasis, common vari able immunodeficiency, herpes simplex, and herpes tester because of it s immunomodulatory effects. Recently, some trials have suggested that cimetidine may also be useful for the treatment of warts. Objective: T he aim of the present study was to determine whether cimetidine is eff ective in the treatment of warts. Methods: Seventy patients with multi ple warts were included in a placebo-controlled, double-blind study. P atients were randomly allocated to treatment groups equally. The group s received cimetidine, 25 to 40 mg/kg daily, or placebo for 3 months. Patients were examined at monthly intervals. Results: At the end of th e therapy, 28 cimetidine-treated and 26 placebo-treated patients were examined to determine the efficacy of treatment. Cure rates obtained w ere 32% (9 of 28) in the cimetidine-treated group and 30.7% (8 of 26) in the placebo-treated group. No significant difference was found betw een cimetidine and placebo in effectiveness (p = 0.85). Conclusion: Ou r results show that cimetidine is no more effective than placebo in th e treatment of patients with common warts.