Benefits and risks of combinations of antihistamines, decongestants and analgesics for the common cold

This review evaluated 4 combinations: antihistamine‐decongestant, antihistamine‐analgesic, analgesic‐decongestant, and antihistamine‐decongestant-analgesic combinations. All 4 combinations showed some beneficial effect on overall symptoms of the common cold in adults and children aged over 6 years. There was no evidence of effectiveness in younger children. The effect on individual symptoms is probably too small to be clinically relevant.

Where pooling of results was possible, the number needed to treat for an additional beneficial outcome was 4 for the antihistamine‐decongestant combination. The antihistamine‐analgesic combination was beneficial in the 2 trials that reported on global effectiveness, and the analgesic‐decongestant combination was beneficial in the 1 trial providing data on this outcome. The antihistamine‐analgesic‐decongestant combination was more effective than control in 2 of the 5 trials, 1 of which was large and of high methodological quality.