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 | high blood pressure, sleepy, depression, weight gain, water retention. | Docs were yelling at me for high blood pressure but I had to find out on my own that Zytec isn't suppose to be taken by people with high BP. I'm suffering from edema in my right leg. The sleepiness and depression weren't bad but am living better off the drug, I will not take this drug again. | M | 45 | 4.5 years | 1/21/2006 | 2 | dander and seasonal allergies | It makes me lethargic and VERY moody/stressed. It also increases my appetite. When i take Zyrtec, I feel very disconnected and impatient. Very unlike my usual self! My daughter (age 5) takes it for cats, too, and is like a zombie all day. I don't like giving it to her unless absolutely necessary. | I will not take it anymore unless I am going to visit a house with cats. It works great for reducing my (very severe) asthma symptoms when exposed to animal dander (no other med. works for that at all). I keep it just for emergencies. | F | 34 | 2 weeks | 1/18/2006 | 4 | HIVES/DERMAGRAPHISM | WEIGHT GAIN!! | I WAS IN CHICAGO JULY 2005 WHEN I FIRST HAD MY HIVE OUTBREAK. IT WAS 100 DEGREES OUTSIDE AND I CAN FEEL MY BACK ITCHING. BY THE TIME I CAME BACK TO CALIFORNIA THAT NIGHT I CAN SEE WHAT SEEMED TO BE WELT MARKS. IT WAS ALL OVER MY BODY (MAINLY BACK, ARMS, LEGS AND OCCASIONALLY FACE). IT WAS BURNING, ITCHING AND MY FEET AND HANDS WERE SWELLED UP. I WAS PRESCRIBED CLARITIN AND THE DR GAVE ME A SAMPLE OF ZYRTEC. THE OVER-THE-COUNTER ALLERGY MEDS DID NOTHING FOR MY HIVES. ZYRTEC WAS THE ONLY MEDS THAT SUPRESSED THE ITCH, BUT THE WELT MARKS WOULD STILL SHOW. I'VE BEEN ON ZYRTEC FOR 6 MONTHS NOW. I HAVE TO TAKE IT DAILY AND WHEN I MISS A DOSE MY HIVES WOULD FLARE UP. SINCE THEN I'VE GAINED WEIGHT. I AM AT THE HEAVIEST I'VE EVER BEEN. I DON'T KNOW IF IT'S BECAUSE I TURNED 30(AUGUST) AND MY METABOLISM HAVE SLOWED DOWN OR IF IT'S ZYRTEC. BUT I RATHER FACE THIS WEIGHT GAIN THAN THE UNCONTROLLABLE ITCH OF THE HIVES. I DIDN'T HAVE A NAME FOR THIS BUT AFTER READING THIS SITE, I KNOW NOW I | F | 30 | 6 months | 1/3/2006 | 1 | seasonal allergies | My 4 yr old was taking it up until a few days ago. It worked great on his symptons, but caused him to have episodes of anger! | I didn't realize what was causing my child to act so horrible until I read the comments on this Web site. I took my child off Zyrtec and now I have my old sweet child back. I was in tears when reading the comments of the other parents who had gone through the same thing with their child. I just wish I had known about it sooner. There should be a warning with this medicine! | F | 40 | 1 years | 1/3/2006 | 1 | Allergy to most foods & environment | I have been on Zyrtec for about 8 months steady - 10 mgs -I take it at night. Initially it made me angry and hyper. Now it makes me sleepy. I can't stop it because I get nausea, itchy, and I feel really sick. I feel addicted to it and it hasn't helped at all with food allergies, but it has helped with environmental allergies. | I don't have much of a choice as I need to be on a 24hour anti-histamine according to my doctor. However, I really think that Zyrtec has made me become more allergic to food in the long run. | F | 43 | 10 months | 12/28/2005 | 1 | Allergy | Our daughter started taking Zyrtec at 2.5 years of age. We thought her terrible two's had kicked in, and so we waited and waited as our little girl went from sweetness to an utter nightmare. She would fly into violent rages at the slightest disappointment, most disturbingly, slamming her head into the floor/wall/anything as part of her tantrum. She is severely speach delayed, her speech was normal until about two then she stopped developing. She rarely to never slept through the night, we even resorted to putting her on Trazadone because we couldn't handle her staying up forever and then waking all night long. It worked for a bit, then she was back to her old pattern. We got her into a therapist who said she had never seen anything so violent or strange. She also would wake in the night and have tantrums and act as though she didn't know where she was. She would go from normal to pyschotic in an instant and back again. | Reading the comments on this website about the pediatric effects of this drug and the apparent lack of information given to parents makes me want to vomit. If this drug is responsible for the 2.5 years of hell we've had to go through as parents I am interested in bringing a lawsuit against the manufacturers. Anyone else? I don't even know how that is done, but something has to happen. We stopped almost by mistake (we ran out and I noticed a change in my daughters behavior and on a hunch, just let the meds go for a bit). A week and a half later she is now beginning to do imaginary play....something she never ever does. I WILL NEVER GIVE HER ZYRTEC AGAIN. I AM FURIOUS THAT I HAD TO GOOGLE THIS MEDICINE IN ORDER TO GET THIS INFORMATION. The bottle should have a skull and cross bones on it as far as I am concerned. I am looking forward to finally meeting the wonderful child I always suppected was inside my miserable child. I feel like a horrible person because it was me giving | F | 4.5 | 2.5 years | 12/27/2005 | 5 | Allergies and skin rash | None | The first day I started taking this once a day (10mg) I felt like a million bucks and had tried Claritin and other pills/liquids. Now I can be around fur for up to 10 hours where as before with the other drugs I would break out within 2 hours. | M | 29 | 6 months | 12/22/2005 | 4 | Migraines ENT Sx from Mold Exposure | AWFUL WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS!!! I have had good E.N.T. symptom relief from 10mg zyrtec. Started taking it when I worked in a VERY moldy building in Florida. I've taken it continually for 2-1/2 years; and, luckily, I have not experienced any depressed mood or low energy, etc. ...But whenever I miss a dose for 36+ hours, I get an awful migraine and terrible nausea. I've run this "experiment" -- intentionally and unintentionally -- about 6 times; and EVERY TIME I have the same withdrawal symptoms. When I take a Zyrtec, I feel better about 3-4 hours later. The withdrawal symptoms are so awful that I have not been able to endure the intense headache and nausea long enough to get through the tunnel. I'm going to ask my Dr. what to do about weaning off of it. I'm not on any other meds, so the withdrawal symptoms are NOT some kind of drug interaction -- it's DEFINITELY ZYRTEC WITHDRAWAL SYNDROME. I've heard of others having the same experience, but it seems to | BAD WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS: whenever I miss a dose for 36+ hours, I get an awful migraine and terrible nausea. It's so bad that I have just stayed on Zyrtec because I cannot endure the headache and nausea. Awful!!! | M | 37 | 2.5 years | 12/15/2005 | 3 | Allergies | Dry Mouth Very Random Dry Skin | I had pretty bad Allergies back in late High School and Zyrtec was the only thing that cleared it up, but you have a constant dry feeling for some reason. Not even drinking large amounts of water fixes it either. | M | 20 | 2 years | 12/13/2005 | 2 | hives | drowsiness, dizziness, headaches, moodiness/depression, increased appetite. | the first two days on this was fine, but lately have been noticing that i can't seem to get out of bed in the mornings. i feel drugged all the time. can't concentrate on anything and i found myself constantly snacking. i was just rolling around on the floor crying (because for some reason i couldn't understand anything in my fed courts book--now i know that reason is zyrtec), when i decided to google the side effects. glad i found this page and that i haven't lost my mind. will definitely stop taking it. hopefully, i won't itch because the itching does sound scary and i started on this drug to stop itching. | F | 26 | 4 days | 12/11/2005 | 1 | allergies | drowsiness, fatigue, numbness, and now intense itchiness and rashes in trying to get off of it. | I moved into an old moldy house surrounded by trees and developed allergies for the first time in my life. I took zyrtec daily for 2 years. Now I live away from what I was supposedly allergic to, so I wanted to stop taking zyrtec. Plus, the other day I noticed I had lots of energy and was unusually happy and optimistic. Then I realized that I'd forgotten to take zyrtec that day. So I haven't taken it since (about 3 days) and I have lots of energy, which is good because I have to itch myself everywhere constantly. But I am determined to get myself off of this drug and appreciated everyone else's comments. Any ideas for non-phamaceutical remedies to ease the withdrawal? | F | 31 | 2 years | 12/9/2005 | 2 | Itchy Skin Rash | Very sore throat, lethargy especially in the mornings, mild depression, that I didn't realise was depression...a very strange feeling of dissatisfaction with everything and everyone around me. | M | 33 | 21 days | 12/6/2005 | 1 | enviro and seasonal allergies | Horrendous drug -- zombielike while on it, unsatiable hunger, marked edema, "disconnected" feeling, itching when trying to get off it. | This is the first drug I've ever taken that I absolutely *hate*. Prescribed for nasal symptoms in combo with Zantac, I don't think it actually helped that at all - just loaded me with awful side effects such as feeling tired and very, very lethargic, disconnected and totally "out of it" during the day, voracious hunger and unbelievable weight gain even when watching what I eat, and edema like I experienced only when pregnant. Legs with 1/2 inch deep pitting edema, hands swollen, etc. Trying to get off of this is difficult as itching is scary... | F | 48 | 3 months | 12/6/2005 | 4 | Rash (esp. after taking shower) | Dizziness, short term memory loss, depression (severe to mild, depends), loss of hair. Recently after using it for almost 4&1/2 years I sometimes have wiered pain chest. I had couple of panic attacks in the last 6-7 months. | I started off with this drug around 4&1/2 years back. Intially I took 10mg per day and it worked really good. Atfer I took it for 3-4 months everyday, I thought that somehow its not good to get used to such drug as sometimes these drugs may cause dependency. So I asked my doctor how long should I take this drug. He said that this is a safe drug and I should take it as long as I have these allergic rashes. So I started taking whenever I had those rashes. I noticed that once I take 10 mg, I dont have rash for atleast 4-5 day , but after that rash comes again. I continued taking the drug for almost 2 years after that. Then I started noticing that I have low concentration, mild depression, I also used to forget thing I should nto otherwise forget. I was pretty much sure in my mind that this drug is the cause for the change in the quality of life I was having. Then I started taking half of 10 mg tablet (ie. 5 mg) every 4-5 days. By then I was taking the drug for almost 3& 1/2 years. | M | 27 | 4 years | 12/3/2005 | 4 | Rash (esp. after taking shower) | Dizziness, short term memory loss, depression (severe to mild, depends), loss of hair. Recently after using it for almost 4&1/2 years I sometimes have wiered pain chest. I had couple of panic attacks in the last 6-7 months. | I go under depression even due to the things that I could tolerate very easily otherwise. I know the things but I can not perform well in the exams just because I can not remeber things well even though the subject matter is well understood. I get frustrated very easily. In last 6 months I had visited clinic twice for the panic attack. I have also started breathing problem recently. I cant walk faster. If I climb even 30-40 steps at a normal rate, I get short of breathe. All these problems I have told to atleast 3-4 doctors. Each of them has responded equivocally and dont seem to have the perspective other than prescribing what has been tought and paid to write. I have even asked many these doctors whether or not I should undergo allergy testing to know the reason I have rashes. None of them seem to be willing to write referral for that for god knows whatever reason. As they say it wont help much by doing allergy testing. As per them I need to have a constant watch over what I eat, dri | M | 27 | 4 years | 12/3/2005 | 4 | Rash (esp. after taking shower) | Dizziness, short term memory loss, depression (severe to mild, depends), loss of hair. Recently after using it for almost 4&1/2 years I sometimes have wiered pain chest. I had couple of panic attacks in the last 6-7 months. | It will be lot easier for the patient to do self watch, if he makes sure that he/ she is not allergic to the allergens (something that cause the allergy) tested in the allergy tests performed in the hospitals. If you get allergies due to the allergen that is tested in the allergy tests then you know whats the culprit. My request to all people taking this medicine is to keep a close watch at the chenges that you see for yourself, and LET YOUR DOCTOR KNOW ABOUT IT. ASK HIM TO TAKE STEPS TOWARDS KNOWING THE EXACT EFFECTS, SIDE EFFECTS OF THIS DRUG. ITS QUESTION OF HEALTHY LIFE. Thank you. | M | 27 | 4 years | 12/3/2005 | 2 | extreme hives | None on 10mg or 20mg/day | 10mg completly knocked out my hives for 5 days and then they came back. 20mg redueced them for 3 days and then they came back. For me this is not working for my hives. | M | 48 | | 12/2/2005 | 1 | Allergies | My 6 yr old son was prescribed zyrtec syrup for seasonal allergies with nasal congestion. One hour after the first recommended dose of 1 tsp. he began trembling, complaining of severe stomach pain & dizziness and began throwing up. Quite a sudden change from a healthy (just congested) little boy who had previously been running through the house like he was trying out for the Olympics. | Proceed with caution. I think this stuff is a bit too strong for children in my opinion. If you have a small child, I would consider cutting the first dose in half. We were recommended to give this medication another try after waiting a few days...but we will not be doing that. We are done with Zyrtec here. | M | 6 | 1 days | 11/23/2005 | 1 | For nasal allergiesand sinusitis | Started giving myson zyrtec in the mornings which made him groggy- so switched to night.After 2 weeks , I forgot a dose.He woke up at 1.30 a.m. with violent shaking and visual hallucinations.I thought he had a bad nightmare-it did not help that he also had a viral fever at the point. Next two days I gave zyrtec he slept through the fever. Then I missed a dose again and pronto he was up at 1.35 am with the exact same symptoms of seeing lights and monsters.He has never had such episodes before and reading all this definitely points to Zyrtec interefering with the mental state. He is definitely coming off Zyrtec. | To top it all it did not relieve his sinus sysmptoms either. | M | 4 | 14 days | 11/22/2005 | 5 | Itchy skin | Somewhat tired but if it stops the prickly skin itchy, I can live with it. | I started itching about 6 months ago all of a sudden, thought it was the detergent or soap. My doctor gave me zyrtec and the itching stopped within a hour. I have to take it three times a week to get relief. Without it the itching drives me crazy. Anyone else suffer from itchy skin for no apparent reason? | M | 39 | 6 days | 11/17/2005 |