Understanding Drug Allergies
Drug allergy is a complicated subject that is misunderstood by the medical and patient community. Pharmaceutical companies label allergies to drugs that are known for rare side effects. The term allergy implies an immunologic reaction on the medication. The patient usually has a reaction within 1 to 6 hours, such as penicillin causing a rash one hour after taking it. However, most immunologic reactions to medication are t-cell or delayed reactions that happen 2 to 5 days after taking a medication. A severe reaction can involve sizable parts of the body or other skin reactions. Drug idiosyncratic reactions include headache, nausea, vomiting, anemia, and other reactions in which the mechanism of damage is not known. Risk factors include the female sex and multiple other medical factors such as hypertension, hospitalizations, and other risk factors.
It is important to label drugs properly and describe what type of problem a patient may have with the medication. For every medication that can be taken off the list, a patient increases his life span. As an example, penicillin is mislabeled 95 percent of the time.
If you need to book an appointment for your allergies or asthma, you can book your appointment online, or call 212-247-7447.