Cetirizine

DALLAS -- Adults using cetirizine for seasonal allergic rhinitis had less impairment of work productivity and other activities than did those on placebo in a large, randomized double-blind trial, Dr. Frank J. Picone said at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

The cetirizine group also had better health-related quality of life, said Dr. Picone, an allergist in Tinton Falls, NJ.

Once-daily cetirizine is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for seasonal allergic rhinitis, on the basis of safety and efficacy data. The focus of this study was on quality-of-life issues.

It has been estimated that seasonal allergic rhinitis causes up to 3.4 million lost workdays and 824,000 lost school days annually. The average patient with seasonal allergic rhinitis loses 3.2 workdays every 4 weeks. Sports, hobbies, and other nonwork activities are reduced by about 4.2 million days per year nationally, he said.

Dr. Picone reported on 865 adults aged 18-65 with seasonal allergic rhinitis in a 3-week study that was conducted during fall allergy season and sponsored by Pfizer Inc.

Impairment at work, at school, and in other activities--assessed by the Allergy-Specific Work Productivity and Activity Impairment instrument--dropped 18% in the cetirizine group, significantly better than the 9.9% reduction with placebo.

Improvement in patient-perceived allergy-related quality of life--assessed by the Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality-of-Life Questionnaire--was significantly greater with cetirizine. Significant differences favoring cetirizine over placebo were seen in all seven domains of the questionnaire: sleep, activities, nasal symptoms, emotions, eye symptoms, practical problems, and nonnose/noneye symptoms.

In terms of efficacy 68% of subjects using cetirizine reported symptomatic improvement, compared with 48% for placebo. Investigators blindly rated 66% of patients on cetirizine as showing improvement in seasonal allergic rhinitis symptoms, compared with 49% for placebo.

The study dropout rate due to adverse events was 2.3% in the cetirizine arm and 2.8% with placebo. Somnolence was reported by 2.1% of cetirizine-treated patients and by 0.9% of those on placebo. Fatigue was a complaint for 4.6% of those on cetirizine and 0.5% of those on placebo.

COPYRIGHT 2001 International Medical News Group
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group