“What are the signs of a drug allergy?”
Are signs of a drug allergy always life-threatening?
3 Answers
Hello,
Let me answer the easy question first. Drug allergies are definitely NOT all life threatening.
Now the hard part. To start, there is a difference between a drug allergy and a drug side effect. A drug side effect is where a medication causes an issue that does NOT involve the immune system. Examples include aspirin causing an upset stomach or an antihistamine causing sleepiness.
The signs on an allergy are nearly innumerable. The immune system has different but interconnected arms that defend us against: Bacterial infections, parasitic infections, cancer, toxins, viruses, fungal and tuberculous infections and more. If a drug activates one or more of these functions and causes the immune system to act in an aberrant way you have a drug allergy.The drug can be directly attacked itself such as serum sickness from a tetanus shot or cause an attack on the person itself such as a drug induced rash from an antibiotic. Each drug usually tend to cause specific allergy issues. By far and away the best source to help out would be your doctor of pharmacist. You see, if you read the info sheets on drugs it reads like a little shop of horrors. What these all inclusive listings usually do not tell you if the listing was from a single reported case of questionable causation or a more common side effect or allergy that occurs with significant frequency. This is where we professionals can help.
Be safe out there!
Carmine Dalto, MD
Let me answer the easy question first. Drug allergies are definitely NOT all life threatening.
Now the hard part. To start, there is a difference between a drug allergy and a drug side effect. A drug side effect is where a medication causes an issue that does NOT involve the immune system. Examples include aspirin causing an upset stomach or an antihistamine causing sleepiness.
The signs on an allergy are nearly innumerable. The immune system has different but interconnected arms that defend us against: Bacterial infections, parasitic infections, cancer, toxins, viruses, fungal and tuberculous infections and more. If a drug activates one or more of these functions and causes the immune system to act in an aberrant way you have a drug allergy.The drug can be directly attacked itself such as serum sickness from a tetanus shot or cause an attack on the person itself such as a drug induced rash from an antibiotic. Each drug usually tend to cause specific allergy issues. By far and away the best source to help out would be your doctor of pharmacist. You see, if you read the info sheets on drugs it reads like a little shop of horrors. What these all inclusive listings usually do not tell you if the listing was from a single reported case of questionable causation or a more common side effect or allergy that occurs with significant frequency. This is where we professionals can help.
Be safe out there!
Carmine Dalto, MD
Not always. But anaphylaxis is life-threatening.
Steven J. Schwartz
Glen Burnie, Maryland
No. Some signs are subtle and don’t mean much of anything. Sometimes you can get a rash. BUT when your mouth starts to swell or your tongue gets big you have to get help fast.
