title: Managing impairment in patients with allergic rhinitis.
abstract: Allergic rhinitis is a common medical problem in both the adult and the pediatric population. A main complication of this disease is a reduction in the patient's quality of life. Individuals with either seasonal or perennial allergic rhinitis often are impaired, adversely affecting work and/or school performance. This impairment can result from the disease itself and the treatment thereof. Oral antihistamines are the mainstay of treatment for allergic disease. First-generation antihistamines are considered sedating and frequently are impairing even when sedation is absent. Second-generation antihistamines show some class variability regarding impairment but as a group are clearly less impairing than their first-generation predecessors. Second-generation antihistamines are the preferred medication when antihistamines are necessary.
authors.affiliation: Division of Allergy/Immunology, Department of Medicine, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska 68131, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stokes
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fenstad
authors.forename: Thomas B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Casale
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001334:Automobile Driving; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects; D004522:Educational Status; D006634:Histamine H1 Antagonists / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D011788:Quality of Life; D012221:Rhinitis, Allergic, Perennial / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006255:Rhinitis, Allergic, Seasonal / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D006634:Histamine H1 Antagonists