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Loratadine Brings Back Allergy-Reduced Cognition: Presented at ACAAI

By Crystal Phend

ANAHEIM, CA -- November 7, 2005 -- Loratadine (Clarinex) reduces the deficits in cognitive performance, alertness, and focus caused by seasonal allergic rhinitis, according to a study presented here at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).

"Physicians and health care providers must broaden their focus in assessing the effects of allergies and treatments on patients," said lead author Cynthia Sullivan, PhD, associate director of neuropsychology, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Washington, DC.

The effects of allergy symptoms on cognitive function have never been compared against cognitive function in healthy, nonallergic individuals, Dr. Sullivan said during her presentation on November 5^th.

Her research group theorized that use of loratadine, a nonsedating second generation antihistamine, should lead to improved cognitive functioning as a result of symptom relief. They chose loratadine because it is the only second generation medication available over the counter, Dr. Sullivan said, so "the findings may be applied to a much larger proportion of the allergic rhinitis population than if a prescription medication were used."

In the multicenter, placebo-controlled, double-blind study, nonallergic controls were compared with 200 patients with symptomatic rhinitis who were randomized either to loratadine at a daily dose of 10 mg or to placebo.

Cognitive tests heavily weighted toward measures of alertness and focus were administered at baseline and 90 minutes after dosing on days 1, 3, and 5.

Results show that a number of measures of working memory and complex attention were improved in patients taking loratadine versus those taking placebo including math processing response time over baseline (significant at day 1 and 3 but not at day 5) and number set comparison response time over baseline (significant at day 5 for 2 individual measures but only a trend overall).

The loratadine group scores were similar to normal group scores for the running memory continuous performance test, which monitors sustained attention, working memory, and resistance to interference, and for the number set comparison, which measures perceptual sensitivity and working memory.

The researchers concluded that these differences could be important in tasks such as driving, operating machinery, work performance, and paying attention at school.

Allergic rhinitis patients can "function just as well as people without allergies" if they are treated, Dr. Sullivan concluded.

This study was funded by Schering-Plough.


[Presentation title: Cognition and Allergy: CLEAR Study Results. Abstract P115]

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