I have a new fun adventure to tackle, one that I never thought I’d ever have the joy of handling, DRUG WITHDRAWAL. The EVIL drug, (if you couldn’t read the title), Zyrtec. Yes, that wonderful anti-histamine is incredibly addictive.

My girlfriend is scheduled to see her allergist in ten days and he instructed her to stop taking Zyrtec prior to the appointment so that the results would be accurate. She has faithfully taken it for 5 years, and after stopping for two days you would have thought it was heroin. Her body was itching non-stop all over. I covered her with Aveeno Lotion several times and it wasn’t helping. She was scratching furiously, causing bleeding, bruising, etc. It was horrific to witness the woman I love tearing herself apart. She was crying and couldn’t stop scratching because it itched so bad. We tried Gold Bond Powder with some success but she couldn’t get to sleep. I threw her in a cold shower and gave her two Benadryl. After this she was very distraught but feeling better, and she finally fell asleep around 1AM. Needless to say, this was not fun.

While this was going on I did some reading about Zyrtec withdrawal, and good Lord, this stuff is crack cocaine in a bottle. I read several sites about it and realized there was a whole blog (Stop Zyrtec, get itchy – which has since been taken down) devoted to it. I was able to pull a few posts for the WayBackMachine, but a lot of it is contradictory advice.

So Dopers, what say you all, how should she quit?

[ol]

[li]Should she ween off of it, reducing her dosage?[/li][li]Should she quit cold turkey?[/li][li]Have any of you successfully quit, if so how?[/li][li]Any words of wisdom of advice?[/li][/ol]

She did speak to her Dr. today who said weening wouldn’t work and cold turkey was the only way.

I also read you shouldn’t substitute/use Benadryl as it will only prolong the process.