From The Doctor’s Desk.
Sept. 28, 2001 — Benadryl, a drug commonly used for both allergies and insomnia, may actually be causing confusion and memory problems in some elderly people.
Benadryl, called “diphenhydramine” in many medicines, is often used in the hospital to help people sleep. In addition, it is in many allergy medicines that can be found over the counter. But Benadryl is also known to have some effects on the body that could potentially cause problems in more susceptible people.
Researchers at the Yale University School of Medicine looked at 426 people in the hospital who were aged 70 and older. Just over a quarter of them had received Benadryl while in the hospital, and the researchers wanted to determine if the drug was causing any problems with memory or concentration.
They found that those people who had been given Benadryl while in the hospital were more likely to be confused at some point in addition to having temporary moments of altered speech and coming in and out of consciousness.
The results of this study, which appear in the Sept. 24 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, leave us asking if this effect of Benadryl might also be a concern in elderly people who take the medicine at home.
The researchers suggest that this issue definitely needs to be looked into further.
However, in the meantime, what should you do?
I would not suggest that you change anything you are doing right away based on what this study is telling us. But if you are elderly and you take Benadryl regularly for allergies, to help you sleep, or for any other reason, I would recommend you pay close attention to whether the medicine seems to be causing you to act differently.
Of course, this can be a very difficult thing to tell about yourself. So if you know someone who is elderly and taking Benadryl, pay close attention to see if they seem to have any difficulty with confusion or memory problems within several hours after having taken it.
If so, I would suggest that you contact the doctor to learn of other ways to treat your allergies or insomnia.
