These comments are made for the purpose of discussion and should NOT
be used as recommendations for or against therapies or other treatments. An indi
vidual patient is always advised to consult their own physician.
[posted 12/27/1999]
Question: I take several medications for different symptoms. I wonder about the drug interactions. Each is of course prescribed by a different physician.
1. Effexor (225 – 300 mg daily) for depression. Seems to work better for me than Prozac.
2. Claritin and Rhinocort for stuffy noses. Allergic to lots of things. The main symptom is only stuffy noses, which means I usually breathe through my mouth since only one nostril seems to be open at a time, which means I snore a lot and bother my wife. So Rhinocort and Claritin seem to open my nasal passages somewhat.
3. Sinemet CR for restless legs, or periodic limb movement. This is the real killer, since I *twitch* most of the night and bother my wife enormously.
It seems that Rhinocort is a steroid. Are there long-term issues with taking it?
And since both Sinemet and Effexor work on the CNS, is there any interaction?
Thanks in advance
Answer: Offhand, I don’t see any particular problem. The Rhinocort is a steroid. Heavy, repeated usable could produce some systemic side effects but it would almost be a publishable event. The literature is remarkable for the lack of problems with this class of drugs. This is probably due to the small *skin* area that it is applied to and poor systemic absorption.
