Does Fexofenadine (Allegra) cause depression?

Our son took Zyrtec for three years due to severe athsma brought on by allergies. We tried to get him off them from time to time, but he would itch all over, especially his head, like crazy. We thought it was an allergy of some kind so we left him on. He couldn't stand to be off them. However, his mood got worse and worse. He ended all of his friendships and closed himself in his room. Finally he nearly jumped out of an 8 story building. He was having suicidal thoughts every day and we didn't know it. I did a search and found many sites with links between antihistamines and depression. We tried a different antihistamine and his depression got even worse. Finally we decided to take him off and have him endure the itching. It took miserable weeks for his system to readjust to not having the meds. The itching finally went away, but it took years and lots of heartache and failure before the depression started to fade. His life has a five plus year black hole in it thanks to antihistamines, not to mention the toll on our family and finances. We're not done yet, but we see hope. Why can we but these like candy at Sam's? How can the FDA not be corrupt and allow this to ruin so many lives. I read a study that said up to 15% of the population gets depressed from antihistamines. 15% of hundreds of millions is a lot, and they don't even know that they are willingly ingesting the culprit! Insidious!

Oh my gosh. I am so sorry about your son and the loss of 5 years. I wonder the same thing...how come nobody knows about this? people eat them like candy. Nobody believes us that they make us nuts at our house but they do. we suffer with allergies or use nasonex when it is really bad and that is all.

Wow, what an amazing site to come upon. I started taking a generic form of allegro for my allergies this spring. 180 mg once a day. Over as period of time I became very sad, anxious, (my heart beating hard) and irritable. At one point I actually told my husband that I didn't know what was going on or why I was feeling so terrible. Anyhow, the allergies have lifted somewhat so I quit taking the pills about a week ago. Today I put two and two together. I am feeling so much better emotionally and mentally. Able to do more with my day as well. It has to be the allergy med I was taking. So glad I am not alone with this.

I have just found this page. I was looking because my girlfriend has started these tablets the other week as she keeps getting itching all over her body. So far they have had no effect on the itchyness but she is getting bad anxiety and depression and now reading these comments i can hopefully Understand why. I suffer from hayfeaver and have tried loads of different hayfeaver tablets but for me, the best is beconase and beco tablets together. They clear up my allergies within 30 mins and have had no other side effects using both of these.

After reading a lot of these responses, I am surprised there is not a class action lawsuit to go after the pharmaceutical companies that make these types of drugs like the Zyrtec. I have suffered from both allergies and depression and anxiety since I was a teenager. I can't really pinpoint any time when any medication made me have depressive symptoms but both my allergies and depression came on around the same time in my early teens. For years I had been on Claritin then switched to Zyrtec then switched to Allegra. Now I only use nasal sprays. But I have also been on and off of antidepressants since I was a teenager. And still suffer from depression today. Im sorry for the losses.

Thank you so much for this info. These are my sons symptoms. He is only 11 so it is very worrisome. I am taking him off Allegra.

I have been taking Loratadine/Claritin ever since it became over the counter 15 years ago for allergies. Over the years I've had major problems with depression. Prior to that I was always a very happy person. In the last year I was sleeping so much 10-12 hours/night yet so tired during the day I still needed a nap. At first I thought it was just a coffee crash as I drink a cup of coffee in the morning. I work out a lot at the gym so I thought maybe I was overdoing it. I had so much mental fog, was lethargic, irritable, and lost interest in many day-to-day activities. I have had issues with erectile dysfunction and delayed ejaculation those enter 15 years and resorted to Cialis and Viagra. Just a few weeks ago I decided to stop all medications thinking it just had to be one of them causing my problems. I was only taking a B-Vitamin, Loratadine, And Acyclovir to prevent Herpes. Wow in just 2 days I felt better then I ever have in the last 15 years. I added the B-vitamin back in and still felt great. I quickly came to the internet to see if the allergy meds could indeed be the root of my problem and boy was I shocked to find out indeed it was. Apparently it has major affects on the central nervous system and can cause all these issues. I am so delighted to have solved my problem but disturbed that there is no warning that comes with this medication. I now can sleep just 7 hours and feel fully rested. I rarely need a nap anymore. All my brain fog is gone and I am back to my normal mental sharpness and have interests again in learning new things. My erection issues and delayed ejaculation have resolved completely. After 15 years I am back to being me.

Yes,
When I take Alegrade D I get shakey, sad and depressed. If my sinis headache is bad I will take a half and not repeat for several days

A year and a half ago I found out I have a food allergy to milk as well as a bunch of indoor and outdoor allergies. My allergist prescribed me to taking an Allegra 180 twice a day (despite the bottle saying only take one max a day). I also was told to take Zantac twice a day; it blocks a different type of histamine in the body. I have not felt that these medicines have given me any side effects in the last year and a half, but a few months ago, I started expericing anxiety and panic attacks. The feeling of anxiety is such a burden that it often leads me to feel depressed and hopeless. I too have been told by multiple doctors that these medications have "no" side effects -- even long term. I am relieved to find this forum. I feel like we have all gotten to the bottom of something together. Last time I tried to go off Allegra over a year ago, I started having allergic reactions again, so I'm gonna have to be really brave to take myself off of them.

P.s. I have been reading some research about heightened histamine in the body being caused by chronic dehydration -- basically not drinking enough water every day for an extended period of time, but not realizing you're dehydration. Drink up people!!!

P.s.s. To the reviewer who lost your child to suicide, I am so sorry for your loss.

I read somewhere that there is a withdraw period of sorts. Your body is not used to fighting off allergies by itself, so it has to readjust. My son had severe itching for about 4 to 6 weeks. Some say it could take 8 weeks. He tried another antihistamine during that time, but it made his depression even worse. We just tried to help him endure and eventually the itching went away. It may be uncomfortable for a while, but it is worth being off it! I had hoped the depression would go away quickly too, but that hung on for years. Still not completely over it.

I agree. I took Allegra D for a few days recently and it definitely was the drug causing the depression. I have just finished with it as my symptoms cleared up and now I am feeling happy and back to normal. I realized early on that it was the medication causing it but I didn't want to get a sinus infection, but decided as soon as i was able to I was going off the medicine. Hope i don't ever need it again. I was so depressed and it was totally mental. I am healthy and active and had to make myself go exercise because mentally i just didn't feel up to it. It does cause depression, made me just feel sad and irritable.

Thank you everybody for sharing your experiences. I read this forum and others a few days ago when I was realizing that I haven't been depressed like this for years and then decided to google if antihistimines can cause depression. Over two months ago I broke out in hives for no particular reason. I started on Claritin but that didn't seem to help. Then my family Dr. put me on zyrtec and ranitidine. My hives got a little better but then got worse again and I got a swollen lip, which freaked me out. I decided to see an allergist, who put me on Allerfex 180 mg twice daily, with the possibility of going up to three or even four pills per day, and also to continue with the Ranitidine. Initially, it worked like a charm, and my hives were gone. But my hives then started to return. I also started to have thoughts of wanting to end my life. I thought that it was just because I was miserable with itchiness and hives. Then I got another swollen lip even much worse than the first time. It went away the next day but my hives were continuing to worsen. I increased the dose to 3 180 mg pills per day but the hives worse than ever. I finally decided to stop taking the Allerfex and switched back to the zyrtec. I was still feeling like staying in bed all day on the zyrtec and still having suicidal thoughts. That is when I finally did the google search that allowed me to find this forum and others.
I have only been off of the antihistimines for 2 1/2 days, and the first day I got new hives and felt really itchy all day. I still felt depressed. Then today, the hives are fading, I felt much less itchy, but most importantly, I feel alive and myself again, and am laughing again.
One thing I am doing to help with the hives and itchiness is following a couple of things I read on another forum regarding people with chronic hives. I started taking 5000iu of vitamin D daily, and I also started taking selenium 200mcg as well as vitamin C. I don't know if that is why the hives are fading, but if you google vitamin D and hives there is actually a research study done on the topic from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. I hope that everybody finds a way to get off of these antihistimines--they can be dangerous--they were for me. I'm sorry for all the suffering everybody has had to go through. Because of your sharing, it helps people like me realize much more quickly that it isn't our imagination, that this really is causing depression.

So, since according to most users in this thread Allegra is the cause of their depression then what is everyone taking for allergy relief?

I also only took it 2 days bp went up and nerves jump in all over and it wasn't the decongestant kind

The first day I took allegra I had uncontrollable fits of laughter, for some reason I had a case of the super giggles... now a few days later I missed a dose and I'm super depressed/anxious and paranoid... I know this doesn't coincide exactly with what other people are aaying, but this is my personal opinion... I'm standing outside on break now just so depressed I don't want to eat anything. This is definetly aborant behavior to my normal self. I'm not going to take allegra again ever.