Medicines for hay fever

Introduction

In addition to intervening in the mechanisms causing the allergy, the treatment of pollen allergy consists of the administration of medication to eliminate or alleviate the symptoms. Antihistamines, mast cell stabilizers such as disodium cromoglycate (trade name: Intal) and nedocromil (trade name: Tilade), as well as inhalable and nasal steroids (cortisone) are available for this purpose. Administered early, the administration of antihistamines can prevent the later occurrence of allergic asthma as a complication of a longstanding hay fever disease. The following topics may also be of interest to you:

  • Antihistamines
  • Active ingredients Antihistamines
  • Asthma
  • Hay fever in children

Antihistamines against hay fever

The best-known antiallergic drugs from this group of antihistamines can be divided into two groups, each of which has a different side effect profile. The first group (medically: 1st generation antihistamines, which were developed in the early 1960s) includes As these substances are also effective in the brain, they have considerable sedative properties, so that newer drugs have been developed. For the treatment of allergic complaints, dimetinden and clemastine (trade name: Tavegil) are still used today, for example, to combat severe itching, making use of their local anaesthetic effect; doxylamine and diphenhydramine are sleeping pills available without a prescription (medically: hypnotics).

Diphenhydramine also has a blocking effect on histamine receptors, which are located in the vomiting center of the brain, and is therefore used as an antiemetic (against nausea). Examples of newer antihistamines with little or no sedative or antiemetic effect (medical: 2nd generation antihistamines) are These do not reach the brain via the blood-brain barrier because they are bound to proteins in the blood: As charged particles do not, they are no longer able to overcome the membranes, which consist mainly of fat-soluble, uncharged particles. The antihistamine fexofenadine (trade name: Telfast) is based on another mechanism for the lack of sedative properties: it enters the brain to be immediately removed by an enzyme that was discovered to transport various drugs out of the brain due to this very property.

The enzyme is known as a “multi-drug resistance” transporter – a transport protein responsible for the ineffectiveness of several drugs (medical name of the enzyme: P -glycoprotein 450). Undesirable side effects of antihistamines can occur (in addition to the already mentioned sedation, which is extremely low or non-existent with newer drugs) in the form of loss of appetite, nausea and diarrhoea (medically: diarrhoea), but are rare.

  • Doxylamine (trade name: Mereprine®)
  • Diphenhydramine (trade name: Dormutil®) and
  • Dimetinden (trade name: Fenistil®).
  • Cetirizine and Levozetirizine
  • Loradatin and Desloratadin.