Thursday, May 23, 2013

Eye Allergies: Patanol Still the Best For Me

Previously, I wrote about my experience with Patanol vs. Alaway.  Since that time I have tried additional medications, and I thought I'd post an update.



The medications I've tried are:

  • Patanol (0.1% solution of olopatadine hydrochloride).
  • Pataday (0.2% solution of olopatadine hydrochloride).
  • Alaway (Ketotifen Fumarate).
  • Up & Up Eye Drops Allergy Relief (pheneramine maleate and naphazoline hydrochloride).
I previously wrote that both Alaway and Patanol worked well for me, but that Alaway had an uncomfortable sting.  I now find the sting almost unbearable and prefer not to use Alaway, but I still do so in a pinch.  Patanol works exceedingly well for me.  I tried a free sample of Pataday; it worked fine, but I did not think it was any better than Patanol.  The fourth option, which is Target's generic brand of allergy eye drops did absolutely nothing for me.  No offense to Target; I like Target, but I think I'm a Patanol man.

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9 comments:

  1. jennifer draperNovember 20, 2013 at 2:07 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. jennifer draperNovember 20, 2013 at 2:09 AM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  3. RichNovember 21, 2013 at 9:01 PM

    I know I happen to be writing about medications, but I don't tolerate pharmaceutical spam comments.

    ReplyDelete
  4. lifewithallergies.netMay 31, 2014 at 11:00 PM

    I think you're sensitive to Ketotifen Fumarate and Olopatadine HCl suits you better.

    ReplyDelete
  5. RichOctober 18, 2014 at 2:53 PM

    Another commentator helpfully suggests getting an eye exam if you have issues, a sentiment that I echo. I deleted the comment, however, because it was spam: it was an obvious attempt to direct web traffic to a particular company's website.

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownMarch 22, 2015 at 8:19 PM

    I used both Patanol and Zaditor. Zaditor relieved the itching in my eyes for about 8 hours the first time and the periods of relief shortened with each use.

    Patanol twice a day stopped the itching altogether in 48 hours. or so it seemed.

    Could have been that whatever was irritating my eye was no longer present.

    ReplyDelete
  7. ktwardMay 19, 2015 at 10:13 AM

    Re: alaway and zaditor (OTC)

    these two are the same drug, as already noted.

    i too experienced stinging when i used alaway, but oddly enough, no stinging at all with otc zaditor. i can only assume there is a non-efficacious ingredient in the alaway solution that is not present in the zaditor solution.

    i've also been prescribed both patanol and pataday over the years (the only diff being concentration, hence, 2x/day for the former and 1x/day for the latter.) in my experience, zaditor works as well as patanol. if there's a difference, it's been so slight i haven't noticed. at various point in time, rx patanol turned out to be less expensive than otc zaditor because of my insurance. at other times, zaditor was cheaper.

    also, walgreens has a generic version of zaditor which is significantly less expensive, and also does not sting.

    ReplyDelete
  8. RichJune 28, 2015 at 5:52 PM

    On your advice, I tried Zaditor; I was surprised to find it did not bother me as much as Alaway despite having the same active ingredient. I can only assume it is an inactive ingredient that bothers me. It seems to be effective, and under my new insurance much cheaper; so I will see if it continues to work for me.

    ReplyDelete
  9. UnknownDecember 30, 2016 at 2:42 PM


    I had already posted this on your previous blog n the topic but since it's also relevant here, I am re-posting. It's funny that the system calls me "Unknowm"
    - Sam
    ===
    While my mystified by the different reactions to Zaditor vs Alaway (since they have the same active ingredient, ketotifen, which is known to sting), your preference for Patanol (Olopatadine) is typical. Repeated studies have shown that both are effective but comfort level and patient preference is by far higher for Olopatadine. In side-by-side blinded comparisons (where subjects used Ketitifen in one eye and Olopatadine in the other, without knowing which is which), preference for Olopatadine was a whopping 81%.

    Go to the last page if you only want to see the results:
    http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/489382

    Borazan M, Karalezli A, Akova YA, Akman A, Kiyici H, Erbek SS. Efficacy of olopatadine HCI 0.1%, ketotifen fumarate 0.025%, epinastine HCI 0.05%, emedastine 0.05% and fluorometholone acetate 0.1% ophthalmic solutions for seasonal allergic conjunctivitis: a placebo-controlled environmental trial. Acta Ophthalmol. 2009 Aug;87(5):549-54. Epub 2008 Jul 9.

    Hida WT, Nogueira DC, Schaefer A, Dantas PE, Dantas MC. Comparative study between 0.025% ketotifen fumarate and 0.1% olopatadine hydrochloride in the treatment of vernal keratoconjunctivitis. Arq Bras Oftalmol. 2006 Nov-Dec;69(6):851-6.

    Leonardi A, Zafirakis P. Efficacy and comfort of olopatadine versus ketotifen ophthalmic solutions: a double-masked, environmental study of patient preference.Curr Med Res Opin. 2004 Aug;20(8):1167-73.

    ReplyDelete