antinomy and antihistamines

[ewx]

antinomy mentioned something on Thursday evening about antihistamines which I'd not appreciated until now - that they can take several days to build up to full effectiveness. This bubbled back to the surface this morning and I had a quick look through the instruction leaflets that come with three different ones (Piriton, Benadryl Plus and the Boots version of Loratadine). None of them tell you this. Annoying, as it means that (unless you happen to have a conversation with a relevant expert) you end up thinking that they just don't work very well on you and switch to a different pill before they've had a proper chance to do any good.

Comments

[mhk.livejournal.com]

This is probably true, but is partly a result of the fact that symptoms come on an hour or three after the pollen has lodged in whatever part and therefore a pill or other treatment has to be taken before that happens, ie in anticipation of, not in reaction to, symptoms. One of the annoying things about this is that to be free of hayfever you have to take whatever treatment for the whole of May and the whole of June. And hayfever is notoriously variable in its incidence even during those months.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I do try to take in preparation rather than reaction, yes...