Adverse drug reactions

Adverse drug reactions are any harmful or unwanted effects that occur after the administration of a drug.

There are two types of drug reactions:

• Adverse or side effects

These are problems caused directly by the drug, which are accentuated if we increase the dose and which are easily predictable and controllable. For example: antibiotics can cause diarrhea.

• Allergic reactions

They are unexpected, unpredictable effects where the individual detects the drug as foreign and produces an immune response against it. It can have a very large range of severity from mild to fatal. It does not depend on the dose that is given to the individual.

Cause

In children, drug use is not frequent. Only 8% of children who are referred for study due to suspected allergy to drugs are diagnosed with drug allergies.

The cause is that the immune system recognizes a drug as foreign and produces a reaction against it, the manifestations of which are what form the allergic response: urticaria, asthma, rhinitis or anaphylaxis.

Symptoms

The most frequent symptoms in allergic drug reactions it is the cutaneous ones, those that affect the skin: rashes, hives, generalized redness () or angioedema. There may also be other symptoms such as asthma, rhinitis, or digestive symptoms.

The most serious and life-threatening condition is anaphylaxis, which manifests itself as a rapid and generalized allergy response that requires immediate treatment as it can endanger the child's life. It is said that the anaphylaxis affects two or more areas o body systems (for example: the child has asthma and hives or swelling of the eyes and diarrhea)

The most common allergy-causing medications in children are:

• antibiotics
• anti-inflammatory or antipyretic
• Anesthetics

Diagnosis

When an allergic drug reaction is suspected, it should be stop taking the medicine and consult the Pediatrician. In cases suggestive of allergy, the study is done by the allergist.

In the event that the child is suspected of having a severe or anaphylactic reaction, they should go to the emergency room immediately.