Loratadine vs. Desloratadine

[hollyhobbie]

Don't know if anyone can advise me, I've been using desloratadine against allergies for a while because, IIRC, Loratadine didn't work for me.
Now -without telling me- the GPs surgery has changed my prescription to Loratadine, they say it's similar enough. My sister who's a pharmacist says they aren't the same thing.

Argh! I feel like I just got on top of my allergies and asthma, and now I'm having to go backwards.

Not sure what I want to happen from this post. I guess I just need to vent/ would like some support to complain more.

this happened with my ds (probably as a cost cutting exercise!) He has actually been fine on the loratidine.

loratadine doesn't work for me either. i just use tesco's own cetirizine hydrochloride, only problem is it causes drowsiness. loratadine is ofter preferred because it doesn't cause drowsiness. when the choice is feel sleepy or sneeze, blow nose constantly, itchy eyes etc, i think feeling sleepy is the lesser of the 2 evils!

thanks for your posts. I feel the grown up thing to do would be to try the Loratadine to see if it really doesn't work.

But I also feel the need to fight this, as I suspect, like you do Seona that this is a cost cutting exercise, and I have serious issues with how the surgery went about this.

More research needed, I think...

ok...
This was when i was at uni so 2000 / 2001 ish

I have had severe hayfever my whole life...
the first ever drug to work for me was loratdine (ie clarityn)... at this point it was ONLY available as clarityn, ie so all the profits went back to the company who had done all the research and invented the drug

just before its patent ran out (so other companies could not yet produce the same drug) clarityn stopped making it, (so it wasnt avaliable at all) but they made desloratidine... essentially the SAME drug which does the same thing...
but again THEY (the same company) were the ONLY drugs company manufacturing it...

this means that when people tick the box on their repeat prescription
, the pharmacy HAS to supply "desloratidine" (ie manufactured by the clarityn company thus the same drugs company get the profit) and cant use a generic cheaper form of loratidine.

I have a very detailed discussion with my GP at the time, as it was imperitive to me i had clarityn / loratidine as it was (still is) the only antihistamin tablet to help me.
Desloratidine works as well / the same as clarityn as it was designed by the drugs company to be the same

I dont notice any difference at all, it was / is as good as loratidine

as well as discussing with my GP i discussed the same with my uncle.... one of the top drugs developers in the world, who invents medicines and understands them even more than Drs / Pharmacists etc

desloratidine should be fine as it was simply invented by the loratine drugs developers to BE THE SAME, just so they could keep the profits on those ticking the repeat prescription box!

nannyl is right. Desloratadine is a metabolite of loratadine which the makers of Clarityn developed to effectively extend the patent of loratadine. However, some studies do appear to show it is more effective than loratadine (apparently).

I would try the loratadine if I were you. Reason being that if you pay for your prescription it is cheaper to buy it yourself over the counter. So if it works for you after all you can just pop to Tesco/Sainsbury and get a month's worth for £2! (supermarket own
brand). Alternatively try cetirizine which is about the same price.

lucykate, you are very unlucky if cetirizine makes you drowsy!

Des L is stronger- you can only get in on a script.
Loret. is freely available OTT and can be bought in supermarkets etc etc as a generic for not much £.

jellycat, am i, bugger!, co-codomol makes me drowsy too.

thank goodness for the supermarket cheap versions though, otherwise it would cost me a fortune. a few weeks ago my eyes were so itchy it was unbearable

opps, question mark disappeared!, was meant to say 'am i?'

Anyone know of an antihistamine that doesn't cause dry eyes? (loratadine really dries my eyes out, and this is apparently quite a common side effect of antihistamines).

oooh, thanks nannyl my sister who's a pharmacist said they are different, as if 'desloratadine' is written on a script, then they dispense something different, but I guess that would tie in with your info about the brands.

I do still tend to agree with purplepeony that DesL is stronger- I'm sure I'm on it in the first place because L wasn't working for me.

I will try it. But I will also write to complain to the surgery about how they went about this. It's not a huge price, but I am cross about having paid £7.20 for something I could have bought cheaper over the counter. Grrr.

rabbitstew sorry I can't help. Maybe one of these knowledgeable ladies will be back to help you?

hollyhobbie please let us know how you get on with the loratadine, and with complaining to the surgery. I do think it is v. cheeky of them!

rabbitstew - sorry I can't answer the question about dry eyes as I haven't had this problem. Do you drink plenty of water? Drinking more might help.

OK here's my experience of it. Last year my hayfever was so bad and really going onto my lungs for the first time.

I tried Loratidine and Cetrizine (sp?) over the counter and had zero relief from both of them. Subsequently went to GP who prescribed Desloratidine, Nasonex nasal spray and some eye drops and bingo, symptoms disappeared. So I don't buy that Loratidine is essentially the same as Des L, or at least that they work in exactly the same way.

i have used over the counter loratadine that has done NOTHING me for.... except make me exceptionally tired and even worse while suffering from hayfever.... i put up with it for about a week and then had enough and went back to "clartyn" loratadine... (the "same" drug")

within 12 hours i had stopped feeling so awful and tired and my symptoms had gone like magic... not used another brand since.

Ahhh now the loratidine I used was not clarityn (as I am abroad) and I used Lorano (a generic I assume). I am not sure if this then made a difference to the lack of effect of the loratidine??!

Try it and see if it works if not go back to your gp

I take cetirizine for my hayfever, but in the past some years it's worked some it hasn't and some years loratidine has worked and some it hasn't.

Also, check for drug interactions with loratidine and remember that alcohol reduces the effectiveness of antihistimines.

thanks, AuntieMaggie. I never normally drink, so that advice wouldn't normally matter to me, but I did 'push the boat out' last night (drowning my sorrows watching the election) and have 2 cans of Guinness- and I feel itchy-eyed and sneezy today

Desloratadine and Loratadine are quite similar. Both are antihistamines and are used to treat symptoms of allergies such as itchy/watery eyes, runny nose, sneezing, hives. Both are effective in blocking histamine production in the body that cause symptoms of allergies, yet it is evident that patients react differently to both drugs. Desloratadine may cause certain side effects that are much more serious than those associated with Loratadine use.