Zyrtec and drugs

I have been taking Zyrtec for about three months. Doctor suggested I take it for a month after bad sinus infection. I was still all choked up after a month so I kept taking it.... I also take an antidepressant, Citalopram, that I've been taking for years. I have wondered since taking Zyrtec if there are any long-term side effects. After reading the postings above I found several symptoms I've been experiencing lately that others contribute to Zyrtec. I stopped taking Zyrtec tonight and will see if anything changes. I definitely have little energy and wake up with excruciating back pain, but I had a fair amount of back pain before I took Zyrtec. I have pain in my upper left arm that is getting worse each day. Heartburn at night. I had very weird dreams lately - I was on "drugs" that made me completely loopy, dizzy and out of it. I woke up dizzy and realized the dream was partly reality.
I have had some headaches and racing heart. I just thought I was getting old and falling apart!! We'll see...
Will keep you posted.
ST

I wish I had found this site a year ago. My 9 year old son was prescribed Zyrtec for his nasal allergies. He took it each day for over 6 months. He began to have problems in school - withdrawing from class participation, moody behavior at home, depression, lethargy, anxiety, worry, feelings of despair, told me that he would be better off dead! I started to panic but never associated the Zyrtec with his mental state. Took him to a counselor who said that he seemed like a normal, well-adjusted little boy who was sensitive. Realized that the Zyrtec was not really fully controlling his nasal allergies so decided to stop taking it for a while. Not much change in the allergies but the emotional change was amazing! I had my little boy back in only a few days after stopping the Zyrtec. First thing I noticed was that he was no longer mopey and lethargic and wondered if the Zyrtec had been making him tired. Then when the rest of his emotional issues disappeared magically I began to suspect the Zyrtec but the ped. dismissed my fears. A few months later he began to have bad allergies again so again tried an anithistimine for him. Zombie-like state returned right away. For some reason he is hyper-sensitive to all anithistimines and we avoid them all with him. What I learned from this is that doctors are not open to admitting that these drugs they so casually prescribe have serious side-effects.

My son was on a cocktail of Singulair, Zyrtec, Astellin and Nasonex. Like a miracle, his severe allergies cleared up almost immediately. Months later, behavioral changes started to surface. Extreme irritability, major meltdowns over nothing, problems in school and pulling out his facial hair including eyelashes and eyebrows. We stopped the medication in April and he improved. By mid summer, the hair pulling stopped. When his allergies started up again about 10 days ago, I put him back on the Zyrtec, because I was certain the Singulair was causing most of the problems. Within 3-4 days, the emotional outbursts started, panic attacks that never happened before - he said he couldn't breathe. Now the hair pulling is back. Everyone thinks I want to blame medication for his problems, but I am certain that Zyrtec has something to do with these problems in addition to Singulair. We have taken him off Zyrtec 2 days ago. We have a dr. appointment in 2 days and we will discuss all of this with him. In the meantime, his allergies are back and he is miserable. I would rather him be physically sick than mentally at this point.

My daughter was taking a deadly cocktail of Zyrtec, Advair, and Singulair. She was on these medications for three years. At the time we thought that it was fantastic that her severe asthma and allergies were finally under control. After about six months of being on the medications we saw her slowly decline into a state of depression and withdrawal, she had constant headaches, she couldn't sleep, she was no longer interested in any of her friends or activities. She went from a loving and sweet girl to an angry and bitter person. In 2003 she committed suicide. Six months after her death reports started to come out about the links to Singulair and depression and suicide. Perhaps it was the combination of the three drugs in her case. If we would have had any idea what the effects of these drugs were we would have taken her off of them immediately! Please spread the word about the dangers of Singulair, Zyrtec, and Advair. Go on to the other sites and read what people have been posting and you will be shocked. The Singulair survivors are banning together to try and get this medication pulled. Do what you can to spread the word!

My daughter who just turn 7 has been on and off Zyrtec for the past 6 months. This last time it finally clicked... She was on it for about 3-4 weeks and I notice her mood changed and she was now very angry at anything and started hitting her sibblings and throwing things at me out of anger. She also was waking up at night either with bad dreams, or couldn't sleep. My husband and I realized that this all started about the time we put her back on Zyrtec. Two days ago, I took her off it and the next day she was an "Angel" compared to before. WOW what a difference. I did notice today (day two) she was sneezing more and didn't feel as well physically. So we are not out woods yet.

She also has been taking Singular for several years and I have been reading more about that medicine as well. I am not sure if needs to be taken off that yet, and will do an experiment. The timing isn't the best since school starts in just two weeks, but it might be worth it to have a happy child again.

On a side note, last year in school, they diagnosed her as having social anxiety. She is "extremely" shy and closed off in school. It would take her hours to do her homework which should have taken about 30 min. I am curious if stopping singular would help clear her head and make her less anxious. (She was on Zyrtec as well during that time).

This would be such an answer to prayer if it works. My two sons are so much happier than my daughter and I always wondered why. This may be the answer!

My husband suffered for a full year with constant burping--not reflux, not heartburn, just air, like colic. He was so bloated that it was painful for him to sit. He went from doctor to doctor, and even to a GI who suspected Celiac's. He also had a feeling that his throat was constricted, and once went to the emergency room, afraid that it might close up. The doctors found nothing.

He has a severe dust allergy (it causes hives, no respiratory symptoms) that was diagnosed last year, at which point he was prescribed Zyrtec and Singulair. He mentioned the prescriptions to every doctor he saw (this is in New York, not the boondocks, btw), and every one said it can't be the Zyrtec or the Singulair. It should be noted that we eat all natural foods, no white flour, no white sugar, so we knew there were no artificial additives that could be causing his reaction. My husband even tried cutting out dairy, then wheat, then all gluten, for over a month.

Finally, about five weeks ago, he told a cousin about his mysterious symptoms, and she asked if he was taking Zyrtec. He said yes, and she said he should try going off it because she'd had a similar problem with that drug. He did, and within four days, the burping and bloating stopped.

Because his itching was uncontrollable with Singulair alone, he decided to try taking one Zyrtec, thinking it might not hurt. Within 24 hours, the burping and throat swelling was back intensely.

The doctor switched him to Allegra. He took one and it helped him. He took a second pill two days later, and the burping reaction started. The allergist confirmed that people who have this "rare" reaction to Zyrtec may also have that reaction to Allegra.

If you are suffering from these symptoms, go off the Zyrtec as soon as you can. I wish someone had told us so that my husband would have saved himself a year of suffering.

I think the hardest part - for me - was even to concieve the idea that Zyrtec has all of these side effects.

I've been taking Zyrtec on a daily basis for about 90- 110 days a year due to really bad allergies. We live in the NY area which produce alergans most of the year.

After trying almost every antihistamine, Zyrtec seemed at the time as the best drug since it handled the allergy while eliminating the drowsiness almost completely for me. Being happy that I was able to maintain normal life during allergy periods was almost a new concept for me and I was really grateful for finding this drug.

Unfortunately, being almost blinded by the allergy-fighting success, I neglected the attention to the side effects. I guess I'm falling into the unlucky 2%. I had almost every side effect: Irritation, mood swings, gaining weight, dry mouth - just name it.

Recently, my wife did some research because we got to the point where I would fight with her over anything. I can testify that my tolerance level hit the ground. Anyway, she got my attention for her research results which turned a red flag for me. In addition, this year my body seemed to not respond anymore to the drug and doing my own little research revealed that it is very likely that you need to rotate different drugs every few months.

So I decided to get off Zyrtec and switched to Benadryl Allergy which I take every 4-6 hours. Yes, it does make me drowsy for about 15-20 minutes but it works. What's more interesting is, I've been about 10 days off Zyrtec and I am shocked to realize that I'm slowly getting rid of all the side effects associated with Zyrtec.

That being said, I would like to emphasize that this was my own individual experience and it may not be the same for someone else. But it is pretty disappointing for me that i cannot use this drug anymore on a regular basis.