[Magdalen] Hornets

[Cantor03 at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/2/2016 7:51:57 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
jay.weigel at gmail.com writes:

And the  initial reaction may have been to the oral Zyrtec, which is a
different  drug  entirely.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 
 
Such reactions as apparently this episode, are relatively unusual
with antihistamines.  I was not aware of a lot of these  reactions
during 50 years of medical practice.  I always kept in mind 
that any drug can cause any problem.
 
Back in the day before oral/injectable steroids were used for
skin problems, we used to hospitalize such as eczema patients
and "snow" them with Benadryl or other H-1 antihistamine to
keep them essentially asleep so they would stop scratching, and
break the itch-scratch cycle.  It worked very well, but the  medical
insurers would go crazy now faced with paying for the hospitalization
of patients with eczema.
 
Zyrtec is an H-2 antihistamine, and has little tendency for inducing
sleep.  It does work relatively well for relief of itching,  however.  
Dermatologists are using sometimes much larger dosage than that
approved in order to get results.
 
 
 
David S.