Posted by: Mfamom
« on: October 02, 2014, 08:58:24 PM »Great Line
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Antihistamines will never ever ever stop a severe anaphylaxis reaction from progressing. The right thing to do is, as early as possible with one of these episodes, is to use your epinephrine auto-injector
Limited awareness of the treatment of anaphylaxis by health professionals
Data from several cohort studies illustrate the extent of under-treatment of anaphylaxis and the low rate of adrenaline use [12, 15, 39-41], with most cases of anaphylaxis that require hospitalization not receiving an AAI on discharge. Adrenaline is much less commonly used than antihistamines and corticosteroids in treating anaphylaxis despite both antihistamines [42] and corticosteroids [43, 44] having an onset of action that is delayed and too late to prevent respiratory and/or cardiovascular arrest, which can occur within minutes [23].
Why not antihistamines or corticosteroids first?
There is no evidence that they provide life-saving treatment (i.e. they do not prevent or relieve upper airway obstruction, hypotension, or shock).[24] Antihistamines [IM or intravenous (IV)] are adjunctive therapies and may be tried after epinephrine is administered to help control cutaneous and cardiovascular manifestations, such as itching, flushing, urticaria, angioedema, and nasal and eye symptoms, as well as prevent secondary reactions.
John-- PLEASE consider carefully reading the following:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3096462/
but the first sign of their kid with a red bump and they are reaching for the epi-pen