Compared to standard care, the combination of high-dose Omeprazole (60 mg twice daily) and conventional pain medication provides better pain relief in patients with chronic pancreatitis.

A randomized, prospective, single-blinded, controlled study was carried out to compare 60 mg twice daily Omeprazole + conventional pain medication versus only conventional pain medication to relieve chronic pancreatitis.

The control group received standard care while the test group received 60 mg of Omeprazole twice daily along with conventional pain medication. Absence of pain mitigation at fourteen days was categorized as failure. At twelve months, pain alleviation, weight gain and any toxic effect of Omeprazole were analyzed. A total of 137 cases (age range of 19 to 72 years) were incorporated.

Most of them were male alcoholics. At two weeks, 96.96% (63/65) of people in the Omeprazole group  and 68.1 % (47/69) of people in the control group reported pain alleviation. The Omeprazole group gained more weight (95%) than the control group (69.5%) after a year.

Most of the pseudocysts in the control arm and all the pseudocysts in the Omeprazole arm resolved. No adverse effect of Omeprazole was noted. No patient experienced clinical, endoscopic, biochemical, or haematological adverse effects after using Omeprazole at large doses.

Resolution of pseudocyst and inflammatory mass and pain relief with high-dose Omeprazole (60 mg twice daily) in chronic pancreatitis was found to be considerably better when compared to the conventional therapy as early as two weeks. Additional studies are necessary using high-dose Omeprazole for painful chronic pancreatitis.