The OTC drug you should never, ever take

It’s the winter that just won’t end. And even when it does, it will continue to leave its mark — in the form of the longest, most miserable allergy season ever.

Even for people that have never had so much as a sniffle before.

That’s right. People who normally sail through the season are suddenly reaching for tissues at record speed. So even if you’ve never had allergies before, you may end up running to the drug store for relief.

But before you head to the Walgreens, there’s an urgent warning about a popular OTC allergy drug that no one is talking about.

You already know that OTC drugs aren’t necessarily safe just because they’re easy to buy. But this is one you should never take.

Because once you do, you may never be able to get off it — unless you are willing to brave some terrible withdrawal symptoms.

The only way to avoid them is to take the drug for life.

But maybe that’s the plan.

“It is almost as if the FDA would prefer this issue disappeared. The FDA executives who were notified seem to be treading water on this problem, hoping that it will sink without a trace.”

The “problem” discussed at The People’s Pharmacy website is the relentless itching, burning and hives that can appear all over your body when you stop taking Zyrtec.

That’s right, Zyrtec. The best-selling allergy drug that your doctor may tell you to take for itching!

The People’s Pharmacy has received hundreds of reports of symptoms that include red, inflamed skin and hives that appear when people stop taking this antihistamine.

And if you ask your doctor about it, he’ll probably say, “that’s the reason you need to keep on taking it!”

It seems that most doctors don’t know about these horrible withdrawal symptoms from Zyrtec and other drugs that contain the ingredient cetirizine. And they certainly won’t hear about it from the FDA.

One woman tells how she stopped taking the drug after three years because she was going for allergy testing. Soon after stopping it, her entire body began itching so horribly that she had to go to the emergency room for help. That’s when she took a Zyrtec pill “by accident” and within ten minutes all the symptoms were gone.

Now, she says, she has tried at least ten times to quit the drug over several years with no success. The itching simply gets worse each time she tries.

Another user told of trying to get off it “many times,” but the “horrible skin itching” burned so badly he had to start taking it again.

The People’s Pharmacy first notified the FDA of these reports almost four years ago. But it said “there is still nothing in the medical literature or prescribing information about withdrawal symptoms.” And the “medical and scientific community seems equally indifferent.”

The only good news in all this is that if you can tough it out, the symptoms seem to go away after several weeks. The best way to discontinue is to wean off it slowly by taking a smaller dose each day, taking vitamin C and quercetin (a natural antihistamine from plants), and take hot showers to bring some relief.

But without any warnings on the package or notice from the FDA, most people will continue to have no idea that these horrible reactions can happen.

As another Zyrtec user said:

“I hope someday that there is something done about this drug. At a minimum there should be some sort of disclaimer about the withdrawal effects. I wish when I was put on this drug that there was more information out there so that I would have never taken it in the first place.”

 

Sources:
“Intense itching from stopping Zyrtec (cetirizine) suddenly” April 24, 2014, People’s Pharmacy Alerts, peoplespharmacy.com