Getting to know

• Antibiotics are the main cause of cause of drug allergy. Penicillin and other medicines from the same family (mainly ampicilin and amoxicillin) are probably the antibiotics most extensively used because they are active against a large number of germs and have a lower grade of toxicity compared with antibiotics from other families; they are also the most frequent cause of drug allergy. Other antibiotics that can often cause allergy are the cephalosporins. 
  
• Sulphonamides (sulfasalazine, antibiotics such as sulfametoxazol found in trimetoprim. Oral antidiabetic drugs such as chlorpropamide, glibenclamide, gliclazide and glipizide) have a similar chemical structure to sulphonamides and may also cause allergic reactions. 
  
• Drugs used for treatment of seizures (such as epileptic seizures) 
  
• Drugs used for anaesthesia (mainly general anaesthetics) 
  
• Insulin 
  
• Vaccines 
  
• Allergens used for desensitisation 

Pseudoallergic reactions are most often caused by aspirin  and other anti-inflammatory drugs used for treatment of pain or fever such as ibuprofen, diclofenac, indomethacin, pyroxicam, etc.; dyes used for radiological examinations and drugs used for anaesthesia can also provoke pseudoallergy.