Has anyone had success with Claritin for hives? - Allergies Message Board

RyansWife · 02-06-2004, 01:19 PM

Surprise Surprise my insurance company refuses to pay for Allegra. My doctor has me on 360mg a day of it and when i miss a dose i have a vicious counter-breakout (same when i stop the steroids) we've been doing this bit for about 8 months now and i've been on Allegra and it really seems to help with the severity of the breakouts.

This morning i woke up with a nasty breakout since i ran out of Allegra a couple of days ago. There is no way i can afford the $160.00 a month for Allegra and the insurance company insists that i try Claritin before they will certify any percentage of payment on the Rx. The pharmacist told me that since they are so hesitant to pay for it no matter what my doctor says about the necessity of having to take it shows that they are hoping that i will just give up on them helping with the costs and just buy it myself and get off their butts about it.

Anyway, I was hoping that someone could tell me if Claritin is even worth trying. I know some people will say it didnt help them at all, but i know different things work for different people and maybe Loratidine (active ingredient in Claritin) will help instead of the Allegra since its not feasible to keep taking it if i run the doctors out of their free samples all the time and insurance isnt helping with the costs!

Thanks in Advance!

PinkBanana · 02-06-2004, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RyansWife

Surprise Surprise my insurance company refuses to pay for Allegra. My doctor has me on 360mg a day of it and when i miss a dose i have a vicious counter-breakout (same when i stop the steroids) we've been doing this bit for about 8 months now and i've been on Allegra and it really seems to help with the severity of the breakouts.

This morning i woke up with a nasty breakout since i ran out of Allegra a couple of days ago. There is no way i can afford the $160.00 a month for Allegra and the insurance company insists that i try Claritin before they will certify any percentage of payment on the Rx. The pharmacist told me that since they are so hesitant to pay for it no matter what my doctor says about the necessity of having to take it shows that they are hoping that i will just give up on them helping with the costs and just buy it myself and get off their butts about it.

Anyway, I was hoping that someone could tell me if Claritin is even worth trying. I know some people will say it didnt help them at all, but i know different things work for different people and maybe Loratidine (active ingredient in Claritin) will help instead of the Allegra since its not feasible to keep taking it if i run the doctors out of their free samples all the time and insurance isnt helping with the costs!

Thanks in Advance!

I take Clarinex for all my allergies(Asthma, Hay fever, Atopic Dermatitis/Hives), and I must say it works great for the skin allergies. I took Allegra for a while which helped, but my allergies make my throat swollen and make it difficult to take Allegra but anyways..so I went off antihistamines for a while and then I started having nasty rashes again. Started on Clarinex and have had only one rash since(since September), which is EXCELLENT for me~I have very severe skin allergies. This is the first winter I can remember being able to make it through without a dermatologist visit..Clarinex works wonders for it!
Do you have any steroid cream on hand? I suggest that you keep some to help counteract any outbreaks at least somewhat till you can get to the doctor, if the Claritin doesn't work. I use Cutivate on all the patches, then if that doesn't help, Psorcon. Obviously their not meant for regular use, but it's ok to use them for up to a week usually.
Hope this helps!

Hogan Grimm · 02-07-2004, 05:05 AM

Hey RyansWife,

When I first started breaking out into hives a little more than four years ago, my doctor gave me some samples of claritin and zertec, he told me to take the claritin in the morning and the zertec at night, at first it worked to stop the outbreaks, but as time went on I developed a resistance to them. I can't take zertec at all anymore no mater how long I stay off of it, and as for the claritin as long as I don't take it every day only every once in a while, just to give myself a break from allergra so as not to become resistant it works somewhat, but doesn't get rid of the hives all together.

Eventually as in my case and mabe others you will build up a tolerance to what you are taking and it will become less effective, or sometimes make symptomes worse.

Hope that helps.

Hogan Grimm