I normally have some level of anxiety but I’ve been having really extreme anxiety and panic attacks over the past few day. The only thing I’ve taken that I don’t usually take is loratadine for allergies. I’ve seen online that it’s meant to have the reverse effect on anxiety but I’ve also seen maybe one of two other people asking the same thing with no definite answers.
Anybody else get this?
I also haven’t taken any today and I haven’t had any panic attacks. My anxiety is at base level too.
I have never personally had that same experience, but I’ll note that drugs.com does note that a common loratadine side effect is “feeling nervous or hyperactive”, and with such a generic and common side effect as that it would make total sense that some people could be much more susceptible to it than others.
Thankfully there are alternatives, but each one has its own separate caveat.
This is gonna sound silly, but I have some serious outdoor allergies, and all these leftover cloth masks from covid, and it turns out wearing the masks outside help tremendously to reduce allergies because the pollen doesn’t make it all up my nose. Of course, the tradeoff is me being the person wearing a mask outdoors in the middle of summer 😅
Japanese have been using masks for allergies for a long time. Something about planting a shit ton of a certain tree for making boats and never cutting them because steel became the better material
I’ve seen people mention it. In general, drugs that are meant to have a certain effect, especially in the mental health realm, often have the exact opposite effect. At least temporarily in the first few doses.
Anyway, I don’t know anything more, but I’ll pitch the [email protected] community. There’s a stickied list of other communities you may find helpful.
You’re not alone but it’s definitely not a common side effect from what I’ve been told. Allergy medication gives me terrible anxiety that sometimes escalates into panic attacks. For me I can take it during the day and feel jittery/weird but manageable, then it feels like it wears off but later while I’m sleeping it escalates and I wake up in the middle of a full blown panic attack. Not fun at all.
I have talked to my doctor about it and their opinion was that it’s not a documented side effect but everybody is different and so I should just avoid taking them. That answer sucks for me because I’m allergic to basically everything outside.
Once, many years ago I had a similar experience. After taking it (not sure which version), I felt like wanting to crawl out of my own skin. It lasted a few hours and then subsided. I haven’t taken any since. If I needed to, I guess I would try it again but not about to for the name of science. Goodluck OP.
Preface: I am NOT a doctor or associated with healthcare fields.
Info here: https://www.drugs.com/monograph/loratadine.html
Possible side effect, drowsiness. But: all meds can have side effects that differ from person to person, sometimes in surprising ways.
Example: I was prescribed catapres to lower my blood pressure. It did so magnificently. But it’s also used to calm down hyperactive kids. It did just the opposite for me—sent me into a manic spiral for several days after 2 doses. I was wired for sound.
So you may just have an odd reaction. Or, you may be on other meds that interact with it. Here’s the list of known interactions: https://www.drugs.com/drug-interactions/loratadine-index.html
Thanks for all your replies everyone! I’m going to stay away from loratadine and go back to my old one.
I’m sorry to hear you aren’t feeling great, I have been taking it for years and never had an issue.
Everyone is different! There are plenty of drugs where I have side effects that aren’t documented anywhere, but I’m 100% sure that the drug is the cause, and allergy medications are one of the things that have given me side effects!
I suggest you carefully experiment with other allergy medications. In particular, fexofenadine (“Allegra” in the U.S.) is just as effective but gives me fewer side effects, although I still can’t handle the larger 180mg dose - I do best with the lowest 60mg dose.
There’s also Cetirizine (“Zyrtec” in the U.S.).
Never happened something like this to me. I use Loratadine almost every day
Me too
Completely anecdotal, but I had similar reactions when taking both Zyrtec and singulair for asthma/allergies, and switching out the ceririzine for loratidine or diphenhydramine(benedryl) got rid of the symptoms. Back when I started on singulair, I had no idea that certain allergy medicines could have an effect on mental health, but nowadays there’s a disclaimer packet every time I pick up a prescription of singulair. I had to do some experimenting with different combinations of allergy medications to find what worked best for me without side effects, so I’d recommend having a conversation with your doctor about what would be best for you to try
I know folks who have had that exact experience after taking one dose of antihistamine. Don’t know if it was lotradine or something else.
That’s not normally a side effect of that drug class, but anything is possible. Have you gone to urgent care or something for the panic attacks? I would definitely recommend seeing someone. Have there been any lifestyle changes recently?
This is not medical advise, so please ask your doctor, but I have had better luck with cetirizine as an anti-allergy med. It’s worth checking out.
