Allegra-D?!
Question: I have been taking Allegra-D 12-hour tablets for six days now.
I believe it has caused me to have depression, anxiety, and strange dreams... all of which I never usually have.
I thought it was me being sick that was causing this however I found forums where many other people experienced the same thing.
a) does anyone know of a link between antihistamines and depression/mood ?
b) how long will it take before it is fully out of my system?
Answers: I have been taking Allegra-D 12-hour tablets for six days now.
I believe it has caused me to have depression, anxiety, and strange dreams... all of which I never usually have.
I thought it was me being sick that was causing this however I found forums where many other people experienced the same thing.
a) does anyone know of a link between antihistamines and depression/mood ?
b) how long will it take before it is fully out of my system?
It did the same thing to me, so don't worry you aren't going crazy.
For me the worst of it stopped after 48 hours of no longer taking them.
After many hours of talking to pharmacists and poking around online this is what I've found: Apparently antihistamines work by blocking the affects of histamines which cause the allergy symptoms. It seems that in the process of doing this they can also block serotonin a brain chemical causing depression.
Now Allergra isn't suppose to do this - but it does.
When first introduced in Australia, the health department marked it as a drug of interest as they thought it may cause psychological side effects. For some reason though, it was then promoted as a wonder new antihistamine - side-effect free apart from a few mild effects which were also seen in the placebo trials so they were thought to not be serious.
I found one instance where a 12 year was admitted to hospital after taking it because if made them severely suicidal.
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:LpJ...
The above link will take you to a HTML copy of a power point presentation. To read the page you have to highlight it because the text is in white and the page is in white too. Or click the link at the top of the page to down load the power point file to your computer.
It's some information from the US Food and Drug Administration about fexofenadine - the main component of Allergera and parts of it are very interesting. They list the following as possible side effects:
Psychosis exacerbation, suicidal ideation, depression
Seizure
Visual disturbances
Abnormal liver function
Urinary tract infection/fungal
Non-accidental overdose of multiple drugs and prolonged QT
Prematurity
Maternal exposure
Medication error
My advice is to talk to your doctor and pharmacist and make sure they listen, because it is pretty terrible that an over the counter medication is doing this to people and there are no warnings about it.
I don't think your psychological symptoms can be attributed to allegera. The molecular structure cannot cross the blood/brain barrier and affect you in that way (my allergist explained this to me).
The pseudoephedrine (The decongestant in allegra-D) is a stimulant, which can make you jittery if you're sensitive and take it long term. Try to switch to regular allegra and see if your mood improves.
It might take a couple of days before the drug clears out of your system.
the only thing it did to me was dry me out-any other meds?talk to your doctor :O)