DanMayo
New Member
Are there any known or suspected long-term side effects such as liver damage? I've been taking diphenhydramine for sleep for years, according to my doctor's orders. I quit recently, and the sleep problems came back with a vengeance.
Monkey,
You would have to be predisposed to worry about liver effects:
"Patients with porphyria lack a specific enzyme in the heme biosynthetic pathway...........A number of drugs may cause a precipitous and dangerous rise in the level of porphyrins. Development of an acute attack depends on the sensitivity of the patient and degree of effect of the drug upon ALA synthetase and demand for hepatic heme."
Diphenhydramine is on this list of medications that can effect this enzyme.
I would not have any issue with using it as a sleep aid and it sounds like your doctor recommended it.
Later,
Dan