Article 32

Backgrounds & objectives: Numerous studies have investigated the efficacies of steroid nasal sprays for adults with allergic rhinitis. However, research on their effectiveness in combination with oral antihistamines is limited. This study compared the efficacies of a steroid nasal spray (mometasone furoate) with an oral antihistamine (desloratadine tablet) in the treatment of allergic rhinitis. Methods: A randomized clinical trial was conducted on 120 patients diagnosed with allergic rhinitis. The patients who attended the outpatient department at Rizgary Teaching Hospital in Erbil city were examined for clinical features of allergic rhinitis. Patients with moderate-severe and/or persistent symptoms were included in this study. In this study, 120 patients with allergic rhinitis were randomly assigned to receive mometasone furoate nasal spray alone (control group) and a combination of mometasone nasal spray and oral desloratadine (experimental group). Results: This study showed a statistically significant effect of combination therapy in comparison with intranasal steroids alone. The effect of the combination therapy was more apparent among patients with moderate-severe persistent symptoms. The score was 11.05 in patients who received the combination therapy compared with 7.85 among patients who received single therapy. Conclusions: This study showed that the efficacy of mometasone nasal spray in combination with antihistamine was higher than single steroid nasal sprays therapy