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.

[imc.livejournal.com]

I am disinclined to believe this, especially if it isn't stated in the leaflet. My current antihistamine of choice is chlorpheniramine maleate (the same as Piriton), of which the recommended dose is 4 a day although I usually get away with taking no more than 2. If I start to feel symptoms then I take one, and I feel better within about 20 minutes (even if I didn't take any the day before). Terfenadine used to be OK before the health scares that made it disappear from the market.

Although it's probably bad logic, I am more inclined to believe the assertion in respect of the one-a-day drugs than of ones which wear off after six hours or less. However, last year I was sold some loratadine (which I hadn't tried before) by a Boots pharmacist on the grounds that it was in the 3-for-2 offer. I didn't think they were very effective, and what effect they had seemed to last only 6 hours. But since I had them, I finished all 21 tablets, and I was no more convinced of their efficacy at the end of this period than at the beginning.

YMMV, of course.

[gerald_duck]

Personally, I don't bother with antihistamines at all. Instead, I use Flixonase (fluticasone propionate), which is a steroid nasal spray. For some reason I find it works much better than Beconase, its more common sibling.

You can get it over the counter from a pharmacist nowadays, but it's much cheaper to get a prescription.

I've been sitting in a London park for most of today (OK, yesterday, now), with no hint of trouble.

[wednesday]

Waitaminit; isn't Piriton cetirizine? 'Cause Benadryl Plus is cetirizine, so in fact is the same thing.

Fexofenadine is the best, IMO, of the batch currently allowed on the market (terfenadine being the best of the ones that aren't), but you have to go to the doctor. If your doctor doesn't treat you like scum, you might wish to consult.

[mhk.livejournal.com]

If I don't want to use pills, I use one of the nasal sprays or a vaseline coating inside the nostrils. To this regime I add Opticrom in the eyes which just about fixes the itching if used regularly enough and as a preventative rather than a cure. Washing out the nostrils after exposure also works surprisingly well, but it's not something you would want to do in public, like when you are sitting out in a park or something!

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

I can second the Fexofenadine recommendation. Good for when your hayfever starts to feel like a proper cold/flu infection. Not so good for a more background level of allergic rhinitis (~1 pocket pack of tissues per day), but I've never found anything that is.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

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

[ewx.livejournal.com]

According to the boxes,

Piriton = chlorpheniramine maleate

Benadryl = cetirizine hydrochloride

Benadryl Plus = acrivastine and pseudoephedrine hydrochloride

(i.e. Benadryl and Benadryl Plus are completely different things that just happen to have the same brand. I was initially confused, too.)

[wednesday]

My Benadryl vanilla is acrivastine, and there's a one-a-day Benadryl in an orange packet I haven't a unit of which is cetirizine. Argh, so I probably don't know from benadryl Plus.

I was thinking of Piriteze, I think, which is cetirizine. Augh. Stupid. Never mind. This is why I have no degree.