Drug Allergy (cont.)

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Drug allergies may cause many different types of symptoms depending on the drug and its administration, patient characteristics, and the part of the immune system causing the reaction.

Skin symptoms with this type of reaction include hives, itching, flushing, lip swelling, tongue swelling, or eye swelling.

A severe IgE-mediated reaction is called anaphylaxis or an anaphylactic reaction. This is a serious allergic reaction that can be life-threatening. A person with anaphylaxis must be treated in a hospital emergency department. Characteristics of anaphylaxis (sometimes referred to as anaphylactic shock) include the following:

• Skin symptoms: hives, redness/flushing, swelling, sense of warmth, itching
• Respiratory symptoms: chest tightness, cough, wheezing
• Gastrointestinal symptoms: vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain/cramping
• Cardiovascular symptoms: lightheadedness or loss of consciousness due to low blood pressure ("shock"), rapid or irregular heartbeat

Most anaphylactic reactions occur within minutes to hours of taking the drug.

Skin symptoms of delayed hypersensitivity reactions include an itchy rash that can be flat, bumpy, or both; blistering oral sores, lesions on the skin that look like bull's-eye targets, and bruise-like lesions on the skin.

Other symptoms: Depending on the drug and severity of the reaction, there may also be kidney involvement, lung involvement, cardiac involvement, eye involvement, or gastrointestinal involvement.

Skin reactions of immune complex reactions include painful hive-like lesions and lesions that look like bruises.

Other symptoms can include joint pain, joint swelling, fever, and swollen lymph nodes.

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