Claratin OVER THE COUNTER & $1 off coupon starts 12/11!!!

[Analog]

Originally posted by: slaman
I'm Canadian and was shocked when I moved to the States and couldn't find a decent allergy medicine. I died for the 2 months until my parents visited me and brought some good ol' Reactine.

Claritin does nothing for me - but it is 1000X better than anything I found at the local pharmacy. Eventually when the US catches up, Reactine will also be over-the-counter and people will finally be symptom-free!

is it legal to bring those over the border like that?

 

[Caminetto]

The FDA's move also may force patients using other similar drugs such as Zyrtec and Allegra to switch to Claritin. Almost all insurance companies are expected to eliminate coverage for those drugs or make their co-payments even more expensive.

 

[royaldank]

In my situation (sinus allergies, was prescribed a steroid nose spray, when that ran out and I didn't have insurance, I tried Afrin, etc. Got addicted. Dr. tried other stuff to get me off the *&^*&^ Afrin)

Dr. gave me Claritin. Did nothing for my sinuses. Wife was given Allegra D for something else. I stole one and it worked great! Can't get the Dr to give me a prescription for that so I'm still ripping my sinuses apart with Afrin. :frown:

Now, I've tried most all nasal sprays and my personal favorite is Neo-Synephrine Extra Strength spray. It's hard to find around here, but Walgreens normally has it (Walmart, CVS never seem to have it). It's the yellow colored package. Great stuff. Spray and then two minutes later I can breathe through my nose. Wonderful. If you try Neo-Synephrine, get the extra strength spray. I've tried the others Neo-Synephrine makes and none compare. Just thought I'd pass that along. I've got a bottle right here in front of me. A real life saver when I wake up at 4:00am, my mouth dry as can be, and not a chance I can breathe out of my nose. Couple minutes later, I'm back in sleeping bliss with my mouth shut.

 

[L1Trauma]

Neo-synephrine is not a long term solution. After 48 hours or so, most people develop a tolerance. Worse, they then rebound when they stop using it.

Nasal steroids (Flonase, Nasonex) are often more effective for people with strictly nasal symptoms.

As a physician, I can assure the AT community that Schering-Plough didn't want their cash cow OTC. A few posts back I saw a pretty good economic analysis of how much money they've made with patent extensions. The problem is not the FDA, it's that companies make large political contributions and Congress extends the patent. With a Republican-controlled Congress, pharmaceutical companies gave almost exclusively to the Republicans to make sure their profit margin stays high.

Other observations from the above posts:
Over the counter medicines are no different from their generic or brand name prescription counterparts. The prescription medications do not magically last longer, as was asserted above. Generally, the dosages are smaller, but not necessarily, in OTC drugs. Motrin, Pepcid, and Zantac are all great examples.

I'm not an allergy specialist, but it's been my experience that it's difficult to predict which allergy medicine works best for a person. Allegra doesn't touch my wife's symptoms, but Zyrtec works great. Her sister uses Allegra exclusively. Same allergies. Who knows why?

Benadryl is the best. It's what we use for anaphylaxis (a potentially fatal allergic reaction) in combination with a H2 (different histamine receptor) blocker like Zantac or Pepcid, and steroids. It makes many people sleepy, but it can't be beat for the allergies that keep you awake.