Antihistamines do not appear to reduce relapses in Copaxone users

Here's an interesting use of insurance claims data to test a hypothesis regarding MS. A research team from Boston analyzed medical claims data from over 4,000 Copaxone users to see whether relapse rate was affected by whether they also used antihistamines. A 2006 study had detected a decreased risk for developing MS in users of histamine receptor blockers, so the idea that antihistamines could help reduce relapses seems reasonable.

In this study, relapses were identified in the database by hospitalization for MS or outpatient visit followed by use of steroids. Use of antihistamines was identified by either prescriptions for antihistamines or likely use of non-prescription antihistamines due to visits to allergists or use of allergy medications. Analysis of the data showed that relapse rates were not affected by whether people had used antihistamines (either prescription or non-prescription) or not. So this interesting hypothesis was not validated by the data. However, perhaps more mining of these types of databases may someday yield something that is more promising.