How To Know If You Have A Drug Allergy

How do I know if I have a drug allergy?

It is easy to know if you have a drug allergy. For example, if you take aspirin, and you break out in hives every time you take aspirin, then you are probably allergic to aspirin. If you have a shot of penicillin and the first 2 times you've had penicillin you have had no problem, and then the 21st time you have hives, swelling, itching, shortness of breath or trouble breathing, then you've become allergic to penicillin. People take a lot more drugs than you would think. People may take a vitamin, aspirin, supplement, birth control, laxative or antacid, and suddenly they're taking 7 or 8 pills, and you ask, “Are you taking any medication,” and they say, “No, I don't take any medicine.” What the patient means is they're not taking any prescription medication. But any or all of those can, at one time or another, cause an allergic drug reaction, or the patient can eventually become allergic to these drugs. So one of the things that the physician should do is carefully evaluate what you are taking and see if any of these could be causing a reaction, and more commonly than not one is.