A Study to Compare the Number of Patients With Gastro-Oesophageal Reflux Disease (GORD) Achieving Heartburn and Regurgitation Symptom Resolution After Treatment With Either Rabeprazole Sodium 20mg, Esomeprazole 20mg or Esomeprazole 40mg

Inclusion Criteria

• Heartburn (defined as a feeling of burning or pain, rising from the epigastrium or lower part of the chest up towards the neck) with or without regurgitation
• Patients must have had episodes of heartburn with or without regurgitation for 3 months or longer, and for >= 3 days in the 7 days prior to randomisation
• Able to understand and complete questionnaires, able to give written informed consent, and have access to a telephone

Exclusion Criteria

• Patients requiring endoscopy within 4 weeks of randomisation or with gastrointestinal symptoms that, in the opinion of the investigator, require further investigation prior to or coincident with initiation of PPI therapy which would include, but are not limited to, alarm symptoms such as unintentional weight loss, progressive difficulty swallowing (dysphagia), iron deficiency anaemia and epigastric mass
• Significant gastrointestinal obstruction, major gastric or oesophageal surgery (excluding appendectomy or cholecystectomy), oesophageal stricture or pyloric stenosis, extra-oesophageal manifestations of reflux disease
• Patients with Barrett's oesophagus (>3cm), Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome, scleroderma, malignancy (other than non-melanoma skin cancers) present within the last 5 years, hypersensitivity to rabeprazole or esomeprazole or any PPI, or any other significant condition that, in the opinion of the investigator, could interfere with the patients participation or compliance in the study such as past or current history of alcohol or drug abuse, hepatic, renal, pulmonary, respiratory abnormalities, or who have participated in an investigational drug or investigational device study within 30 days prior to the baseline visit or who are expected to do so during the 4 week study period
• Female patients who are currently pregnant or breast feeding, or who, in the opinion of the investigator, may become pregnant throughout the study
• Use of histamine-2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs) within 7 days of randomisation, anticholinergics, cholinergics, spasmolytics, opiates, sucralfate, proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), prokinetics, antibiotics (in relation to H. pylori treatment) or bismuth compounds within 14 days of randomisation