The Psychomotor Effects of Levocetirizine - a Second Generation Antihistamine in Healthy Volunteers

Background

Levocetirizine, a new second generation antihistamine which is claimed to be non-sedative in western studies is an R-enantiomer of cetirizine. In Indian context there is little literature available about its impact on psychomotor performance. That's why present study was planned to exclude the possibility of adverse effect of levocetirizine on psychomotor performance in Indian conditions.

Materials and methods

In this double blind, placebo controlled, cross over study, 24 healthy volunteers performed various objective and subjective psychometric test after single dose of levocetirizine 5 mg, chlorpheniramine 4 mg or placebo at 0hrs, 2hrs and 4 hrs intervals. The test battery included was - six digit cancellation test, digit symbol substitution test, arithmetic ability, critical flicker fusion, serial verbal learning, hand steadiness test and three different visual analogue scales.

Results

In the present study levocetirizine was statistically similar with chlorpheniramine on six digit cancellation test (p value <0.05), however it did not impair any other psychomotor performance test and was similar to placebo. Chlorpheniramine impaired performance significantly on all the objective and subjective psychomotor test at both time intervals.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that levocetirizine in 5mg dose is free from the negative effects of the previous generation of antihistamines and do not impair psychomotor performance in Indian conditions also.