Quitting Zyrtec Is ‘Total Hell’

Users of the popular allergy drug can experience withdrawal symptoms. I was one of them.

Jessica Misener
Feb 6, 2019 · 13 min read
Illustration: Ben Giles

It was much more than my usual allergy symptoms returning. It was a fiery sensation, an itch that felt like it was bubbling up from inside me.

As if on a timer, when 24-48 hours have passed since their last cetirizine dose, the agonizing itching suddenly sets in. Imagine your scalp, the palms of your hands, and the soles of your feet afflicted with an intense pins-and-needles sensation or constant full-body pinpricks that scratching yourself red won’t relieve even though you may try.



“I’d lie awake for hours and just count the spots that were itching on me. I didn’t realize at the time, but it was because I didn’t bring my Zyrtec to his house.”

“I thought I was going crazy until I read online that others had the same issues,” writes Wendy of Madison Heights, Virginia on the Consumer Affairs website. “I feel like there is [sic] a million fire ants running all over stinging me for the past 3 weeks,” says Vanessa of Batavia, Ohio. In a closed Facebook group called Kicking the Big Z (Zyrtec or Cetirizine Withdrawal), almost 500 members debate coping strategies. People who have quit successfully give advice on how to wean off.


A spokesperson for the FDA said the agency “is aware of this concern and is continuing to look at this issue.”

“We received a number of the reports described in the article, and we noticed that this reaction was not yet described in the product information/patient information leaflet and that the story described in all reports was very similar,” says van Hunsel, who serves as head of signal detection for the center. Van Hunsel and her co-authors concluded that their findings “suggest a causal relation between withdrawal of (levo)cetirizine and the occurrence of unbearable pruritus.”



Elemental

Your life, sourced by science. A new Medium publication about health and wellness.

Jessica Misener

Written by

Writer based in San Francisco. Author of Things To Do Before You’re 30. Formerly: BuzzFeed, HuffPost, and more. Please send good bagels!

Elemental

Elemental

Your life, sourced by science. A new Medium publication about health and wellness.

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