Can You Use Claritin And Flonase Together?

Hello and thanks for reaching out!

I'm more than happy to answer this for you.

Claritin (loratadine) and Flonase (fluticasone nasal spray) can safely be used together to help treat your allergies. There are no interactions between them.

Having said that, there are studies that show that combined use doesn't seem much more effective than using Flonase (or any nasal steroid for that matter), alone.

Nevertheless, as mentioned, they are safe together.

Flonase And Claritin For Allergies

Both Claritin and Flonase are safe, and effective drugs to treat allergies, specifically what is known as allergic rhinitis (i.e. hay fever, seasonal allergies).

They do work in different manners.

Claritin is a second-generation antihistamine, very similar to other drugs in the class, like Allegra, Zyrtec, and Xyzal.

These drugs work as antihistamines, blocking the binding of the molecule histamine to its receptors, which causes the allergy symptoms we know so well (e.g. nasal congestion, sinus headache, watering eyes etc...).

Flonase, on the other hand, is an intranasal corticosteroid, that works primarily by reducing inflammation in the nasal passages.

Other intranasal steroids include:

• Flonase Sensimist
• Rhinocort
• Nasacort AQ

Due to their differing mechanisms of action, and lack of interaction, Claritin and Flonase can be used together.

As stated though, some studies show that combining both doesn't seem more effective than using Flonase alone.

One such study concluded the following:

Intranasal corticosteroid [e.g. Flonase] plus oral antihistamine [e.g. loratadine] have similar efficacy to intranasal corticosteroid alone

This seems to apply only to oral antihistamines (like Claritin) and nasal steroids.

Studies show that nasal antihistamines combined with nasal steroids are more effective than either alone. One had the following conclusion

Intranasal AH-INCS [antihistamine-inhaled nasal corticosteroid] has benefit over INCS [inhaled nasal corticosteroid] on nasal and ocular symptom improvement for treating AR [allergic rhinitis].

Some good news here is that a nasal antihistamine (Astepro) was approved for over-the-counter sale in 2021, and is slated to be available in mid-2022. Once available, you'll probably get better relief from your allergy symptoms by combining Astepro and Flonase (versus Claritin and Flonase).

Final Words

So, overall, you can certainly combine an antihistamine like Claritin, with Flonase. There is no interaction there.

In fact, it is safe to combine any oral antihistamine (e.g. Zyrtec, Xyzal, Claritin, Allegra) with any nasal steroid.

Just be aware that there isn't much evidence showing that using together will help with your symptoms any more than using a nasal steroid alone.