What are the complications of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)?

Reflux disease, if left untreated for a long time, can lead to complications like Barretts esophagus, narrowing (stricture) of the food pipe, or even esophageal cancer. It has been shown that regular treatment and symptom control will prevent most of these complications. Many patients need long term treatment for this condition for complete symptom relief and so when the duration of treatment does up, some patients become apprehensive about medicine side effects and tend to stop the drugs and suffer symptoms. But it should be noted that medicine side effects are not the main problem in this situation and complications usually come in untreated patients. The medicines used for reflux disease are mild and do not cause significant side effects even on long term use.