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    J Int Med Res. 2009 Jul-Aug;37(4):1167-72.

    Treatment of chronic idiopathic urticaria with levamisole: a multicentre, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial.

    Zhang H, Shan C, Hua Z, Zhao P, Zhang H.

    Affiliated Yancheng Hospital, Medical College of Southeast University, Yancheng, China. minidog1972@yahoo.com.cn

    The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of treating chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU) with levamisole in combination with levocetirizine. This was a multicentre, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial that included 132 patients with active CIU who were treated for 6 weeks with either levocetirizine alone (control group; n = 65) or levamisole plus levocetirizine (treatment group; n = 67). Response to therapy was evaluated by measuring the efficacy rate. After 2 weeks of treatment, there was no significant difference in the efficacy rate between the treatment and control groups (54.84% and 42.37%, respectively). After 6 weeks of treatment, a statistically significant difference in the efficacy rate was observed between the groups (76.27% and 54.39% for the treatment and control groups, respectively). This study demonstrated that a combination of levamisole plus levocetirizine is more effective than levocetirizine alone and potentially provides a new, promising approach to the treatment of CIU.

    PMID: 19761700 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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    Patient drug information

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      Hydroxyzine is used to relieve the itching caused by allergies and to control the nausea and vomiting caused by various conditions, including motion sickness. It is also used for anxiety and to treat the symptoms of alco...

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