Allergist Zachary Rubin, MD: This may be a hot take, but a lot of allergists are moving away from Diphenhydramine, also known as Benadryl. Even though you can readily get this over-the-counter to treat various allergic issues, this is an older medication that also not only has antihistamine effects, but anticholinergic effects that can create significant side effects, such as dry mouth, drowsiness, difficulty concentrating, urinary retention and constipation, especially if you’re taking it at higher doses.
We’re concerned that people are taking this as a sleep aid when it’s actually inappropriate, because it doesn’t actually improve your sleep quality and you end up having to take more and more doses in order to get a similar effect.
And at high doses, chronically there are some observational studies that is concerning for a potential for an increased risk of dementia. This is something that we are looking at right now and researching more about.
In addition, we have newer antihistamines such as cetirizine (Zyrtec), loratadine (Claritin-D), fexofenadine (Allegra) and levocetirizine (Xyzal) that have similar antihistamine properties without the sedative effects or other concerning anticholinergic properties. So these medications work similarly but have less side effects, which is why most allergists are starting to move away from Benadryl.
See other videos
Resource Type: Video | Allergy Treatment
