Spring allergy season is in full swing, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning about a rare but serious “severe itching” side effect from popular allergy medications that has affected hundreds of people.
In a safety warning posted on May 16, the federal agency said some patients who had taken oral allergy medications for long periods of time experienced acute itching, medically known as pruritus, after they stopped taking the drugs.
The affected medications are cetirizine and levocetirizine, which are sold under brand names including Zyrtec, Aller-tec and Xyzal. About 200 cases of pruritus were reported between 2017 and 2023.
The FDA says the side effect is rare but some cases were serious enough to require medical intervention, including some who said the itching was so bad that it significantly impacted their quality of life. In most of the reported cases, the patients had been using the medications daily for at least three months, and only noticed the itching after they stopped taking the pills.
Most people said they were able to resolve the itching by restarting the medication, then tapering off more slowly.
The FDA is now revising the prescribing information to include a warning about the possibility of pruritus.
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