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A member asked:
Can allergy medicine (i.e. zyrtec) become ineffective after a while?
2 doctors weighed in across 2 answers
Tolerance develops: A tolerance to zyrtec may have developed. Switching to Allegra or Claritin (loratadine) for a while may help. Once those stop working going back to zyrtec may work.
Answered 6/24/2014
4.2k views
Yes: Yes, Zyrtec (cetirizine) can become ineffective after a while. Zyrtec (cetirizine) tends to block histamine responses; however, the immune system diversifies with time and sends additional signals to respond to allergy (develops an adaptive response with IgE antibodies, B cells, T cells, etc). Once this occurs, antihistamines only block a subset of the allergic immune response.
Answered 7/25/2015
2.5k views
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