Oral Antihistamines Don’t Help Atopic Dermatitis

Oral Antihistamines Don’t Help Atopic Dermatitis

Routine oral antihistamines provide little benefit for moderate to severe atopic dermatitis, according to a new meta-analysis published in The BMJ. Researchers evaluated 47 trials involving 6,230 children and adults with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis across more than a dozen countries to determine whether adding oral antihistamines improves eczema outcomes. Although second-generation antihistamines (eg, cetirizine, loratadine, fexofenadine) produced statistically significant reductions in eczema severity and itch, the improvements were below established thresholds for clinical …

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Should Diphenhydramine Revert to Prescription-Only Status?

Should Diphenhydramine Revert to Prescription-Only Status?

A recent article in the World Allergy Organization Journal aims to discourage the use of prescription and over-the-counter diphenhydramine. Clinical teams from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Division of Allergy and Immunology, University of California, San Diego, argue that the first-generation antihistamine has risks and should no longer be widely prescribed or made available over-the-counter. There are safer and more effective second-generation alternatives like cetirizine, loratadine, and fexofenadine available that might be …

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