Maarten Vasbinder lives in Isaan. His profession is general practitioner, a profession that he mainly practiced in Spain. On Thailandblog he answers questions from readers who live in Thailand.
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Dear Martin,
A few months ago, my girlfriend brought a small jar of tablets with her, because of a stuffy nose and pollen allergy. The name is: histatab chlorpheniramine maleate 4 mg is a very small jar, price is 20 baht for 100 tablets. Afterwards it turns out that as a very bad sleeper I sleep for about 1 hours on 8 tablet. Normally my sleep is 5 to 6 hours and very often interrupted.
After first taking it incidentally, I have taken it every day for the past week, in the evening at 20.00 p.m., about 23.00 p.m. in bed and then sleeping until 07.00 a.m. I have not experienced any side effects from this, except for a little drowsiness the first half hour after waking up.
My question is, is there any harm in what I'm doing, or am I cultivating a dependency, and can it hurt?
I'd love to hear what you think.
Yours faithfully,
J.
*****
Dear J,
The jar contains a first generation antihistamine. Chlorpheniramine is, I believe, from 1948. You can become addicted to it and it is a drug that is generally discouraged. It is linked to Alzheimer's, but there is no real evidence for it.
Habituation will also set in, so that you end up needing more. It does not appear to be more harmful than benzodiazepines.
Sincerely,
Dr. Maarten