Effectiveness, safety, and tolerability of bilastine 20 mg vs levocetirizine 5 mg for the treatment of chronic spontaneous urticaria: A double-blind, parallel group, randomized controlled trial

Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is a debilitating condition, adversely affecting the patient's quality of life. Bilastine is a recently introduced, non-sedative H1-antihistamine for its treatment. We wanted to compare the effectiveness, safety, and tolerability of bilastine 20 mg vs levocetirizine 5 mg in moderate-to-severe CSU. We conducted a double-blind, randomized controlled trial with two groups: bilastine 20 mg (n = 31) and levocetirizine 5 mg (n = 27), once daily for 42 days. We included patients (18-65 years), with moderate-to-severe CSU. UAS7, VAS, and DLQI were used to assess severity of urticaria, global urticaria-induced discomfort and quality of life, respectively. DLQI was assessed at baseline (D0) and end-of-treatment (D42), while UAS7 and VAS were noted at baseline and all follow-up visits. Assessment of UAS7 alteration was our primary objective, while changes in DLQI and VAS were the secondary outcomes. Safety was assessed by recording drug-related adverse events, biochemical investigations, and electrocardiogram, along with tolerability and compliance. Both drugs significantly improved UAS7, DLQI, and VAS at end-of-treatment (D42) compared with baseline (intra-group). At the end-of-treatment, all parameters showed greater improvement with bilastine, but only UAS7 reduction was significant (bilastine > levocetirizine,P= .03). In both the groups, UAS7 and VAS improved significantly D14 onwards, and was maintained throughout the study. Sedation was significantly less with bilastine (P= .04), while neither drug showed any serious adverse-effect. Tolerability of both drugs was similar. Therefore, bilastine was found to be a more effective and less-sedative novel therapy for CSU compared to levocetirizine, with similar effect on quality of life.