Drug Allergy The Facts
That Could Save Your Life

Drug Allergy - The Facts That Could Save Your Life

A drug allergic reaction is an unwanted side effect to a medication that has been taken.

The reaction can be mild such as a rash or it can be a serious reaction that affects your vital systems causing shock and even death.

Allergic drug reactions typically show up on the skin in the form of hives.

Drug allergies can be life threatening, but death from a drug reaction is rare.

The allergic reaction usually does not appear the first time you take a medication. There are many reactions that an individual can have after taking a medication.

There are irritations, side effects such as nausea, vomiting, and also diarrhea, which can be seen when the body is unable to break down a certain drug. It is important to describe any reaction to a drug in as complete a description as possible to your doctor so that a determination can be made as to whether or not what you had really was a drug reaction.

Not every reaction you have is an allergic reaction to a drug; your doctor will be able to distinguish the difference for you. The doctor will be able to tell if what you experience is a true drug allergic reaction or a reaction between two drugs that you took, or if you had an accidental drug overdose or if what you experienced was just an unfortunate and very irritating nonallergic drug reaction.

When an individual does have an allergic reaction to a drug, the body is overreacting to the drug and viewing the drug as an invader that needs to be destroyed.

Your doctor will describe the reaction as a hypersensitivity reaction that produced antibodies to the antigen (in this case the drug). It is the effects of histamine on your body cells that cause the symptoms of the drug reaction.

Pharmaceutical And Medicine We try to rest by cutting back on our physical activity such as staying home from work and school, laying around on the couch or even sleeping more than usual. On the second day of our cold we may discover that our nose is runny, so we reach for an antihistamine such as Benadryl Allergy, or Banophen or we may chose to use chlorpheniramine found in Aller-Chlor, or Chlor-Trimeton Allergy. As the cold lingers we may experience "stuffed up nose" which has us reaching for some decongestant OTC such as Sudafed, or Allermed. Drugs and Medicine

 

Common drugs that individuals have been allergic are analgesics such as codeine, morphine, and nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs known as NSAIDs such as aspirin, ibuprofen or indomethacin.

Individuals are also known to be allergic to antibiotics like penicillin, and to sulfa drugs, and also to tetracycline.

Risk factors that expose an individual to becoming allergic to a drug are when the individual is repeatedly exposed to a certain drug, receive large doses of a drug, or a drug is given by injection.

Medication Drugs Many medications used to treat infertility are given subcutaneously. The injections are easy and take about 10 minutes or less to accomplish. Drugs and Medicine

Drug allergies tend to run in families so be careful if someone else in your family is allergic to drugs. Also, sometimes when individuals have food allergies like being allergic to eggs, soybeans, or shellfish, they can wind up being allergic to a medication as well.

There are a few different types of reactions that individuals have to drugs; skin reactions such as developing a measles-like rash, and also red hives that are itchy. Some individuals swell up (tongue, throat).

Other reactions are fever, muscle and joint aches and also lymph node swelling and inflammation of the kidney.

A more serious drug reaction is called anaphylaxis shock or anaphylaxis reaction. This serious drug reaction is life threatening.

Someone having an anaphylaxis shock or reaction needs to be treated in a hospital emergency room. An anaphylaxis shock can occur within minutes of taking the drug or as long as an hour after taking the drug.

If you have a family member that is allergic to drugs, know the warning signs of a reaction, that you can get medical help fast. Acting promptly to get medical help just may save the life of the individual having the drug allergy attack.

If you did have a drug reaction, a notation should be made into your medical record so that all doctors and pharmacists will know that you are allergic and be on the look out for anyone prescribing it for you.