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Antihistamines

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Critical Care Toxicology

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By the turn of the twentieth century, interest in allergic response and particularly the phenomenon of anaphylaxis had become intense. In 1902, Portier and Richet provided further focus for the study by developing the concept of altered animal reactivity, which they termed allergy [1]. Of the biologic amines released in the inflammatory process, histamine was the first described, originally termed β-aminoethylimidazole. Histamine’s actions on the gut, bronchioles, and heart were reported in 1910 [2, 3]. The work on the receptor theory of drug action was well under way when the first articles on anaphylaxis were published. It was not until 1933, however, when Clark published The Mode of Action of Drugs on Cells [4], that acceptance of that theory became sufficient to stimulate a search for compounds that might block histamine’s effects. Many compounds with antihistaminic activity were produced, but their toxicity precluded use in humans. In 1941, a French patent was obtained for N1N-dimethyl-N...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Emergency Medicine / Division of Medical Toxicology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Jerry W. Snow & R. Brent Furbee

Authors
  1. Jerry W. Snow
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  2. R. Brent Furbee
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Correspondence to Jerry W. Snow .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Colorado School of Medicine, Toxicology Associates, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Jeffrey Brent

  2. Office of New Drugs Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

    Keith Burkhart

  3. Clinical Toxicology, St Thomas' Hospital, London, United Kingdom

    Paul Dargan

  4. University of Colorado School of Medicine, Toxicology Associates, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Benjamin Hatten

  5. Med & Toxicological Intensive Care Unit, Lariboisière Hospital Paris-Diderot University, Paris, France

    Bruno Megarbane

  6. University of Colorado School of Medicine, Toxicology Associates, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Robert Palmer

Grading System for Levels of Evidence Supporting Recommendations in Critical Care Toxicology, 2nd Edition

  1. I

    Evidence obtained from at least one properly randomized controlled trial.

  2. II-1

    Evidence obtained from well-designed controlled trials without randomization.

  3. II-2

    Evidence obtained from well-designed cohort or case–control analytic studies, preferably from more than one center or research group.

  4. II-3

    Evidence obtained from multiple time series with or without the intervention. Dramatic results in uncontrolled experiments (such as the results of the introduction of penicillin treatment in the 1940s) could also be regarded as this type of evidence.

  5. III

    Opinions of respected authorities, based on clinical experience, descriptive studies, and case reports, or reports of expert committees.

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Snow, J., Furbee, R. (2015). Antihistamines. In: Brent, J., Burkhart, K., Dargan, P., Hatten, B., Megarbane, B., Palmer, R. (eds) Critical Care Toxicology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20790-2_116-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20790-2_116-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-20790-2

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