ZYRTEC Reviews (CETIRIZINE HYDROCHLORIDE)Average Rating: 2.0 (1820 Ratings)Filter ResultsCompare ZYRTEC with similar:
Type: Over-the-counter Drug
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Results are sorted by Date added. Key to Ratings: 1=LOW (I would not recommend taking this medicine.) Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 |
More on ZYRTEC: Reviews Summary | FDA Adverse Event Summary
| RATING | REASON | SIDE EFFECTS FOR ZYRTEC | COMMENTS | SEX | AGE | DURATION/ DOSAGE | DATE ADDED |
| 1 | Allergies | Gave to my 3-year-old son for constant cough from allergies. Worked on cough, but turned him into a monster! He would cry and throw huge temper tantrums over the slightest upset. He has been angry and aggressive- attacking his 4-year-old sister when he gets mad. He is normally a sweet child with normal behavior. I could not even recognize the monster child he had become!! He also has had nightmares that have caused him to cry out during sleep. | It took a few weeks to realize the medication is what caused this change. We had given it to him intermittently, so it was not as obvious. His sitter and I were tallking about his behavior and when it started- and together had the "aha!" moment. He will not be taking this anymore! | F | 43 | 3 weeks 2.5ml 1X day | 1/5/2011 | 4 | Year round allergies | Uncontrollable itching that starts on hands, feet, and scalp and moves to my whole body when I forget doses | Works great on my severe allergies. Forgetting doses is miserable though | F | 25 | 5 years 10mg 1X day | 1/4/2011 | 2 | asthma/allergies | my son was on Zyrtec at the age of 7 for about two weeks. It did not help his allergies. One day he woke up screaming with abdominal pain and a belly that looked like a 5 month pregnant woman. We rushed him to the hospital and discovered that he was completely blocked in his bowels. The dr said that this was caused by the Zyrtec. We took him off of it and within days he was better. | M | 7 | 14 days 5 or 10mg 1X day | 1/4/2011 | 1 | allergies | I was in tears today with my 4 yr old daughter; she was soo negative and moody, throwing tantrums and being defiant. She usually is the sweetest child, caring and helpful. She was soo rude, saying no and actually pushed her little sister today in frustration/anger. Thank u sooo much for this site, i am no longer giving her this medicine. thank god i didnt keep her on it longer!!!! | F | 4 | 5 days 1.5 ml 1X day | 1/2/2011 | 5 | Seasonal allergies | none | It works, quickly and effectively, where all other non-drowsy antihistamines have failed. I take the generic Walgreens/CVS/Wal-mart version as needed (about once or twice week during the winter) and stop sniffling/sneezing within fifteen minutes! As a side note, I try not to take any medication regularly unless it's absolutely necessary, to protect against potential dependency or cumulative side effects. This may influence why I have nothing negative to report. | F | 26 | 1 years 10mg 1X W | 12/7/2010 | 4 | Allergies | Tiredness, sometimes dries me up too much. | This works very well, but sometimes over dries my nose, so I stop it for a day or two. Makes me rather sleepy, so I take it at bedtime and sleep like a baby. | M | 53 | 1 months 10 mg 1X day | 12/7/2010 | 1 | Allergies | Horrible nightmares, tightness and swelling of tongue and throat, scratchy throat, hoarseness, tiredness. | I decided to try Zyrtec because Claritin doesn't do anything for me, and Benadryl gives me panic attacks. The first day was okay, but I did not notice any side effects. The second day, I had a strange dream where my father came on to me sexually. I have never been abused or molested ever in my life, so there was no reason to have such a nightmare. Then last night, I had a dream where my body was covered in an awful rash, my throat swelled up and I could hardly breathe, and I was losing vision and consciousness and I couldn't see anything but knew I needed to put on my clothes and go to the ER. I was also screaming my husband's name in the dream, but he couldn't hear me because the bathroom fan was on. I woke up in tears, relieved it was a nightmare, but still very disturbed. I haven't taken the Zyrtec in 2 days... hopefully it is out of my system now and the nightmares will stop. My throat and tongue still feel swollen. My stepdaughter is 6 and so far has no problems with the zyrtec - she takes a 5 mg dose every day. | F | 30 | 3 days 10 mg 1X day | 12/1/2010 | 1 | Seasonal allergies | Itchy hands and feet with occasional burning on the soles of my feet after 3 days without a dose | I have wanted to stop taking Zyrtec for the past year but the closest I've gotten is taking it once every 3 days which is when the itching sets in. I started my research today on the itching and realized, like so many others, that it isn't just me. My doctor told me the itching must be from an allergy to something in my house. Not so - it is definitely withdrawal from the Zyrtec. I am going to cut back to half a pill every three days and buy Claritin to help minimize the itching. After a week or two of half pill doses, I will try to stop completely. I'm determined to do this quickly. The sooner, the better. To everyone else having similar issues, I wish you the best of luck. This issue should be publicized and the exact effect this drug is having on our bodies needs to be discovered. | F | 40 | 2 years 10 mg 2X W | 11/30/2010 | 1 | allergies | Exhaustion, weakness, sleep problems, dry mouth, weight gain | I had been successfully treating my allergies with Allegra for several years, until my insurance company switched me to Zyrtec about a month ago. Almost immediately I started feeling tired and miserable all the time, and noticed my weight creeping up. I began to suspect the change of medication and after about three weeks decided to quit taking the pills to see if they were causing the trouble. Sure enough within a day or two I was feeling back to normal. I did have some itching, mostly at night, but nothing as severe as described by others, maybe because I hadn't been taking it for very long. After five days off, I tried to complete the test by taking one pill last night at bedtime and already today I have been so exhausted I could barely keep my eyes open all day. Thank goodness I didn't have any real work to do. I've had enough and will learn to live with the sneezing if this is my only alternative. | F | 60 | 30 days 10 MG 1X day | 11/30/2010 | 1 | Hay Fever, Itchy nose, Itchy throat | Where to begin! I feel as though I am late with my response to how this medicine really took away 1 year of my life in a sense. I just found this site but I went through Hell getting off this drug back in 2009...before beginning this drug I used to be a very deadline driven ambitious person, confident in myself and easy going. This drug completely changed me. I didnt notice that I had "changed" until those around me started saying I had gained alot of weight (30 extra pounds--the heaviest I have ever been was 125 and I was almost 160 lbs on this med.) I started getting in to major arguments with my boyfriend to the point where I felt psychotic! Over the littlelest things, crying spells, sitting in a room thinking about life is not worth living, thinking of the worst in everything---that there was no bright side. I felt so depressed. All my problems in my life where intensified with this drug. These side effects began about 6 months of starting the drug. Thats when the major a | continued...I was late on my assignments and at work I was also falling behind to the point I was gonna get written up! totally not my personality. The sad thing I didnt even care. I just wanted to go home and sleep all day. I never went anywhere...I was a zombie. I found your website and immediately stopped taking this drug. I used Aveeno to bathe and lotion myself down with to stop the itching. I could shave my armpits for a while though because i broke out in a rash a month after stopping the med. I was able to shave after a few months after that. I drank tea for my throat and just endured the seasonal allergies. Every time I itched I just put lotion on. I very well weaned off this horrible drug a year later. I have lost so much weight --especiallyy around my stomach area! I am now 140 something getting close to 130 lbs and hopefully back to my original weight in a few more months. I am trying to go back to school and I am doing way better at work--I can concentrate now. I dont sit at home sleeping my life away. I get out and socialize now and am more active. This drug made me anti-social. I just wanted to say that you can wean off this. I dont take anything for my allergies anymore. I just dont trust the side effects and its not worth my life. Please spread the word.Would not recommend to anyone, please stop taking this drug if you have been experiencing these side effects. | F | 28 | 16 months 10 MG 1X day | 11/27/2010 | 3 | hives | Hair loss, fatigue, weight gain, irritability. | Wow! I have been wondering for a while why I am losing my hair and cannot lose weight that I have gained. I have never had this much of a problem losing weight. I was actually pleased when I read these comments to finally figure out why these things were happening to me. The only problem is it is the only thing that stops me from itching. I don't know what I am going to do because either way, with or without it I will be miserable! Does anyone have any suggestions? | F | 42 | 1 years 10mg 1X day | 11/23/2010 | 1 | seasonal allergies | After trying to wean myself off of the generic Zyrtec once allergy season had passed, I had trouble sleeping. I would wheeze and/or cough. If I fell asleep, I would wake up 2-3 hours later and go take an allergy tablet, which would alleviate my breathing within an hour. This isn't how previous over-the-counter allergy medicines worked for me, so I called the manufacturer and reported that I believe I have an addiction. | I would not recommend it after researching the public's reaction to taking this drug. I feel like I have to go to an allergist now to get off this drug and manage my allergies otherwise. In the past, I only needed allergy medication in the spring, late summer, and fall. | F | 44 | 5 months 10 1X day | 11/22/2010 | 1 | allergies | Have developed a dependency. If I miss a day, by that evening (36 hours after taking last dose), my skin feels like it's crawling and it's a miserable, itchy evening. As soon as I take even 5 mg, the itching stops within 1 hour. Looks like this is a common issue. | It's the only thing that has seemed to work for eczema and allergies, but it's NOT worth the addiction! I've successfully gotten my kids off the medication, but I am still dependent on it. | F | 38 | 3 years 10 mg 1X day | 11/19/2010 | 5 | seaonal allergies, digestive issues | Was told to have my son take it at night, just in case it made him drowsy, but we didn't notice any increase in drowsiness. | Zyrtec was wonderful for our son. He went from having 2+ weeks of unbelievably runny noses every time he caught a cold, to just normal symptoms of a few days. He also felt a great lift to the almost constant depression he had been feeling, and it cleared up the gastro issues he had been having as well. We took him off Zyrtec and put him on Claritin and it just didn't do the job. I see a lot of negatives on here about Zyrtec, but for our son, it made such a positive difference in his life. | M | 16 | 4 years 10 mg 1X day | 11/18/2010 | 1 | seasonal allergies | I have taken Zyrtec probably for about 9 yrs. I took other allergy medicines before that. I have had seasonal allergies for about 35 yrs. As I get older I have found that I am tired all the time and have no energy to exercise. I have tried going off Zyrtec before during the winter months but always have the itching that gets worse with each day I'm without Zyrtec so I usually start it again. But after reading all these testimonials, I am going off it for good. It's been 4 days since I took Zyrtec and I am feeling flu symptoms. I just feel really weird and have a sore throat. I don't know if this is from not having the Zyrtec or if I really do have flu symptoms (I haven't felt right for 2-3 days) and its not getting any better. Has anyone had these symptoms when going off Zyrtec? The itching hasn't started yet. | Had I know that Zyrtec was addictive - I would not have started it! My doctor never told me! | F | 56 | 9 years 40 mg 1X day | 11/18/2010 | 1 | Seasonal Allergies | I take a 24/hr zyrtec every day. If I 'skip' a dose I can't go more than an hour or two before my hands and feet begin itching. It then spreads to my head, legs/arms. It's so intense my only option is to take another zyrtec. My wife has taken the same dose for about the same length of time and has the same symptoms. | Zyrtec definitely helped my allergies but the withdraw symptoms are not only undocumented but seemingly impossible to overcome. | M | 32 | 4 years 10mg 1X day | 11/17/2010 | 1 | allergies | sleep problems, fast heartbeat and most recently night terrors after stopping dosage for 2 days | My recent allergy episode was so bad that I took Zyrtec and continued to take it for about 5 days. When the allergies got better, I stopped taking the drug. I woke up drowsy, sleepy and very irritable this morning. An hour later, after sending my son off to school, went for a nap and woke up 6 hours later from an upsetting dream. I was sluggish throughout the afternoon and early evening. Finally went to bed and shortly afterward began having night terrors for the first time in my life! I couldn't breath, felt paralized and had to lay there until I calmed down. Will not recommend this to anyone especially children. But for parents whose children are on this medication, I would suggest contacting a doctor as stopping the drug IMMEDIATELY HAS ITS OWN SIDE EFFECTS. Good luck. | F | 41 | 5 days 1X day | 11/17/2010 | 1 | severe allergies to grass and trees | My 14 year old son became a completely different person - formerly happy, cheerful kid turned severely angry, moody and suicidal. Also developed skin rashes. Didn't appear to help his nose symptoms either | My son took this drug haphazardly which is probably the thing that saved him. He took it most regularly when he started going in for his allergy shots every Friday. Then every weekend he was a depressed mess. Looked up ways to commit suicide on the internet. We started to wonder if it was the allergy shots and then made the link to zyrtec. He was off it for two weeks and became more normal. Two days back on it, suicidal again. I don't think this drug is appropriate for children!!!!!!! | F | 48 | 4 months 1X day | 11/16/2010 | 1 | allergies | Anger, tiredness, lack of appetite, night terrors | I have just tipped my bottle down the sink!! My 3 year old was on this off and on during the spring for allergies. While it helped with the allergies it turned my wee man into a tantrum throwing brat. The worst part was he ended up having night terrors and it would take hours to calm him down, never again!! | F | 41 | 5 days 5ml 1X day | 11/11/2010 | 2 | allergies | drowsiness, loss of focus, feeling "out of it" | worked well but side effects caused me not to continue | F | 45 | 1X day | 11/7/2010 |