- Aug 17, 2020
- 101
- Tinnitus Since
- Many moons...
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Unknown
I'm just jumping in here without reading the previous posts, so please forgive me if this is too far out in left field. I don't know about Benadryl and tinnitus, and I'm glad it helped you, but it has been linked, for those who don't know, with Alzheimer's in those 65 and older. This was for those who took it for three years, and that raised the probability of getting Alzheimer's to a whopping 54%.I think we're on the same page, as far as kids generally being overmedicated, Americans generally being too pill happy, etc. But the idea that "many of these children will end up with tinnitus" I don't think is something that makes sense or is data supported, so I am curious where you're gathering that information. I'm not disputing or trying to make light of your situation, I just think it's so unusual that it's hard to extrapolate much from.
These drugs are not known to be ototoxic, and, while basically anything psychoactive can probably cause tinnitus under extremely unusual circumstances, children are given Benadryl and other anticholinergic all the time, as well as adults, they are some of the most commonly used OTC and prescription drugs in the country, and they're not associated with tinnitus development in any clinical papers I can find. I'd be more concerned about stuff like Tylenol, which, while not psychoactive, is definitely ototoxic (and anecdotally caused direct, temporary tinnitus in my MIL so she doesn't use it...). Risk vs reward definitely skews heavily to reward, especially when you look at stuff like anaphylactic reactions, etc (as a kid I was allergic to bee stings; Benadryl prevented it from progressing breathing difficulties...).
Vistaril has been used pretty widely by people on here as a lightweight sleep drug; it's also a gen-1 anticholinergic drug which also exerts activity on other transmitters; I've never seen any horror stories.
Not sure what the rules on are posting links, but here's one from Harvard Health:
Common anticholinergic drugs like Benadryl linked to increased dementia risk
Now back to your regularly scheduled posting!