Effect of topical levocabastine on allergic and non-allergic perennial rhinitis. A double-blind study, levocabastine vs. placebo, followed by an open, prospective, single-blind study on beclomethasone.

Forty-four patients, with symptoms of nasal obstruction, sneezing, itching and/or rhinorrhea, were entered into a placebo-controlled, double-blind study to evaluate the clinical efficacy of a topical antihistamine drug, levocabastine, applied 4 times a day for 14 days. At the end of the treatment the placebo patients were treated with levocabastine and the levocabastine patients were treated with beclomethasone dipropionate in a single-blind design for another 14 days. This study showed that levocabastine is significantly more active than placebo with reference to nasal discharge and sneezing. Placebo application improved the symptom score. Levocabastine could not be proved to be more effective against nasal obstruction than placebo in the double-blind trial. In the single-blind set-up, levocabastine resulted in an additional improvement in the score for obstruction, after the placebo period. Although the allergic group tended to respond better, no statistically significant difference could be detected between allergic and non-allergic patients. After treatment with levocabastine, beclomethasone dipropionate administration could not improve the results for nasal discharge and sneezing. For nasal congestion, beclomethasone dipropionate proved to be superior to levocabastine.