Further improvement of quality of life by cetirizine in perennial allergicrhinitis as a function of treatment duration

The SF-36 Health Status Questionnaire is a generic quality of life question naire based on 36 questions selected to represent nine health concepts. Per ennial allergic rhinitis is a disease which causes variable restrictions on the physical, psychological and social aspects of patients' lives. Accordi ng to the SF-36 questionnaire assessment, quality of life is impaired in th ese patients. Cetirizine, a potent, reliable histamine H-1-receptor antagon ist, has already been found to induce significant improvement in the qualit y of life of patients with chronic rhinitis, as assessed by the same SF-36 questionnaire after 1 and 6 weeks of treatment. This paper further investig ates the extent to which cetirizine continues to improve quality of life af ter a long-term treatment (6 weeks) compared to a shorter treatment (1 week ). The analyses show that despite the significant improvement found after 1 week of treatment with cetirizine compared to placebo, a further 5-week co urse of therapy not only maintains this improvement but continues to enhanc e quality of life significantly above and beyond this.