"after one week on contrave with no sign of it beginning to work i woke up with hives,.  a few hours later my whole body was covered with hives and extremely itchy.  over the counter antihistamine did little to help and i continued to break out .i did not take any more contrave after the first sign of hives. the second day i went to er for help from the growing whole body rash and frenzied itching. i was given iv steroids and more antihistamine. it has now been 5 days of hives and i do not think i have peaked yet. each day it is worse and i do not know when it will start to abate. horrible horrible experience"