Antihistamine Medications

ANTIHISTAMINE MEDICATIONS

Partial List

  • Stop these oral antihistamines for 5 days before your appointment:
    • Claritin® (Loratadine)
    • Alavert ® (Loratadine)
    • Allegra® (Fexofenadine)
    • Clarinex® (Desloratadine)
    • Xyzal (levocetirizine)
  • Stop these oral antihistmanines for 4 days before your appointment:
    • Actifed®, Dimetapp® (Brompheniramine)
    • Atarax®, Vistaril® (Hydroxyzine)
    • Benadryl® (Diphenhydramine)
    • Chlortrimeton® (Chlorpheniramine)
    • Phenergan® (Promethazine)
    • Tavist®, Antihist® (Clemastine)
    • Zyrtec® (Cetirizine)
    • Actifed®, Aller-Chlor®, Bromfed®, Drixoral®, Dura-tab®, Novafed-A®, Ornade®, Poly-Histine-D®, Trinalin® (Combination medicines)
    • Overthe-counter cold or allergy remedies
    • Over-the-counter and prescription cough syrups
  • If you are taking an oral antihistamine that is not listed stop the medicine for 3-4 days before your appointment. If you are not sure if the medicine you are taking is an antihistamine, call the clinic.
  • Nasal antihistamines such as Patanase and Astelin should be stopped 3 days prior to the appointment.
  • Stop these medications the morning of your appointment:
    • Tagamet® (cimetadine)
    • Zantac® (ranitidine)
    • Pepcid® (famotidine)
    • Axid® (nizatidine)
  • Sometimes antidepressants can also act as an antihistamine. Let your doctor know if you are on any antidepressants before your skin testing.
  • Tell our office Before your appointment if you are on oral steroids (prednisone, deltasone, medrol, solumedrol, prednisolone, pred-pak, medrol dose pack, decadron, dexamethasone, hydrocortisone, cortef, solu-cortef) or if you have recently been given a steroid injection (some physicians call this an “allergy shot” – please contact the administering physician’s office to find out if it was a steroid.)
  • Continue to take all your other medicine as you usually do. Singulair and nasal steroids (nasonex, veramyst, flonase, etc.) are OK to continue up to and through the allergy test.
  • Continue all asthma inhalers.
  • If you are being seen for hives or eczema, you may not be able to be allergy tested on your first visit. In this case you may want to continue your antihistamines for comfort.
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