QUESTION:

Dear Doctor,

I turned the AOL search engine loose on "phenobarbital" and it brought me to your site. I've looked around and it's all very interesting, but I haven't found the info on phenobarbital (curious about Claritin-d and Donnatol combined). Which section should I look in?

ANSWER:

I’m not a big fan of phenobarbital. It’s an outdated medication because of it’s enormous addiction potential. It can cause profound side effects including grogginess, staggering, and rebound headaches. If you’re on Donnatol (which has phenobarbital in it) and choose to use Claritin or any other medication, you need to be aware that all anti-epilepsy drugs can cause profound drug interactions. There are better medications these days than Donnatol.