THE CLINICAL evaluation of the effectiveness and duration of sustained-action antihistamine and decongestant medications is difficult to accomplish because of the all-too-familiar phenomena of widely changing subjective symptoms and of rapidly changing environmental exposure to ever-varying allergens and/or irritants. In addition, final evaluation rests with the patient's subjective determinations or the physician's appraisal made from relatively meager observations.
Using a new objective technique, the effect of a sustained-action antihistamine and decongestant medication (Allerest Time Capsules) was studied during environmental exposure to ragweed pollen.
Method
Six hospital employees who had ragweed hay fever were selected for testing on the basis of availability. All of these individuals performed their usual jobs in the hospital during the experiments. Tests were performed during the ragweed pollinating season. Because subjects were in the same general area, environmental ragweed pollen concentration was assumed to be the same for all. An increase or decrease in symptoms