Clinical pharmacology of tritoqualine: a comparative study against dexchlorpheniramine in allergic rhinitis

The effect of tritoqualine on seasonal allergic rhinitis caused by grass pollen was compared to that of dexchlorpheniramine maleate (DCPM) in 21 patients randomly allocated into two parallel groups. There were rapid improvements of all symptoms considered after treatment with either tritoqualine or DCPM. A significant reduction of plasma histamine concentrations was observed during the treatment with tritoqualine whereas no modification occurred with DCPM. Finally, it was shown that tritoqualine did not modify reaction times to visual and auditive stimuli whereas DCPM induced a significant slowing-down of the reaction time to visual stimuli. From this pilot study tritoqualine appears to have the same efficacy for the treatment of seasonal allergic rhinitis as classic anti-H1 antihistamines, but without central nervous system side-effects.