What Are Some Of The Best Ways To Treat Drug Allergies?

— -- Question: What are some of the best ways to treat drug allergies?

Answer: The treatment of drug allergies depends upon the nature of the reaction. If the reaction to a drug appears promptly after the drug is administered for the first time, we call this an acute allergic reaction, and it may be a serious and life-threatening and require emergency treatment, including the use of drugs used for emergency treatment of allergic reactions such as epinephrine, antihistamines and even steroids.

Drug reactions that occur late in the course of a treatment with a drug like penicillin may involve simple skin rashes which don't require any treatment at all. Essentially stopping the drug will allow the skin rash to disappear over one or two days without any need for treatment.

And then there's some complicated but very rare allergic reactions that involve multiple systems in the body with aches and pains in the joints and fever and perhaps some changes in the white cells in the blood. These types of longer lasting reactions and more serious reactions often require treatment with anti-inflammatory drugs such as steroids. But these are quite uncommon among the array of possible allergic reactions to drugs.

Next: How Are Life-Threatening Drug Allergies Treated Versus Non-Life-Threatening Drug Allergies?

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