Various medicines (both prescribed or OTC/over the counter) and herbal supplements may interfere with allergy skin testing. We kindly ask that you stop the following medications for specified time indicated before testing, which you may want done at your first visit or at another time. This is NOT an all-inclusive list and only includes the more common medications used by our patients.
- Allergy medications - 5 days: Benadryl (diphenhydramine), Allegra (fexofenadine), Claritin (loratadine), Periactin (cyprohehptadine, Atarax (hydroxyzine)
- OTC labeled Cough/Cold meds - 5 days
- Tylenol PM or Advil PM) - 5 days
- Herbal remedies - 5 days (eg turmeric)
- Allergy medications - 3 days: Zyrtec (cetirizine) and Xyzal (levocetirizine) are an exception to 5 day rule for antihistamines
- Sleep aids - 24 hours: melatonin and Unisom (doxylamine)
- ADD medications - 24 hours
- Anti-reflux medications -H2 blockers such as Zantac /Pepcid/Tagamet - 24 hours. Proton pump inhibitors/PPI such as Prilosec/omeprazole, Nexium (esomeprazole) do NOT need to be stopped.
- Allergy/red eye drops - 24 hours
- Singulair/montelukast - 24 hours
- CBD oil - 12 days
- Nose sprays such as Astelin/azelastine and Dymista - 5 days
*Certain medications are purposefully not included in this list as stopping them may have important consequences and may require consultation with other doctors. If medications can not be stopped for your appointment, a consultation may still prove very useful to assess your problems and to discuss other options for diagnosis and therapy.