Could cetirizine be causing this anxiety

[Notagoodtime]

Ds who is 14 years old is taking cetirizine for hay fever. The last few weeks he has been having panic attacks at school and paranoia. His energy levels have plummeted too. I have the dr phoning me in a while but just wanted to know if anyone has experienced this and if another antihistamine would be better?

Sounds unlikely it would be that. Are those listed as possible side effects?

J I'm would say it's unlikely as antihistamines have more of a sedative effect.

Here’s the NICE info on this drug, yes these are rare side effects so it’s possible: bnf.nice.org.uk/drug/cetirizine-hydrochloride.html

I have experienced this, and I did look into it and it seems it is more common in younger people. I am a middle aged woman BTW.
To cut a long story short every time I went on holiday to a hot country I would have an episode around a week in. I can only describe it as an extreme panic attack. I am struggling to think how to describe it, but it was almost like I was switched to a different dimension. Fear, paranoia, fear of food, extreme panic and it was like my brain was not functioning normally. I remember one episode trying to do normal things like wash my hair and make a cup of tea, because I did realise the feelings were illogical.
It was very odd. This went on for years and I mentioned it to a doctor, and he said that it may be an allergy to something. It took me another two years to realise it was probably antihistamines. I only ever took them on holiday to avoid prickly heat (Which actually was an allergy to sunscreen, but that’s another story).
Once I stopped taking them, and I only ever took them on holiday I never had one of these episodes again.
So it’s something to consider. I never tried an alternative medication, because I didn’t really need it.

I experienced this - paranoia and panic attacks, it took a while to figure out that ceritazine had coincided with it starting. I switched to loratadine and all was fine.