Medications and Skin Testing: Advice for Patients

1) There is NO NEED to stop the following:

Allergy eye drops (Rx or OTC) Inhalers (albuterol, flovent, qvar, advair, etc) Nasal steroids (Flonase, Nasacort, Nasonex, Rhinocort, Veramyst, Omnaris, etc) Oral steroids (prednisone, orapred, etc) Singulair (Montelukast)

2) Patients should avoid using skin lotions or creams on the day of testing.

3) Antihistamines interfere with skin testing, and therefore need to be stopped prior to testing as follows:

Allegra (fexofenadine) 7d Antihistamine nose sprays (Astelin, Astepro, Patanase) 2d Atarax or Vistaril (hydroxyzine) 7d Benadryl (diphenhydramine) 2d *Many OTC cough/cold/allergy meds contain benadryl Clarinex 7d Claritin, Alavert (loratadine) 7d *now OTC, under several brand names Clemastine (Tavist) 2d Periactin (cyproheptadine) 7d Zyrtec (cetirizine) or Xyzal (levocetirizine) 10d *cetirizine is now OTC, under several brand names

4) Other medications may interfere with skin testing as well. If a patient has been referred for skin testing and takes any of the following meds, please contact the Asthma/Allergy Team:

Antacids (Tums, Rolaids, etc) Anti-anxiety meds (ativan, valium, xanax, klonopin, buspar) Anti-nausea meds (phenergan, reglan, compazine, zofran) Appetite suppressants Beta blockers (atenolol, metoprolol, propranolol, Coreg, etc) Dizziness/motion sickness meds (meclizine/antivert, Dramamine) H2 Blockers (axid, pepcid, tagamet, zantac) Robitussin products (all) Sedating antidepressants (trazodone, imipramine, amitriptyline, nortriptyline) Sleep aides, OTC (most contain Benadryl) SSRIs (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil) rev. 4/15/09 khb rev. 8/12/14 khb