Allergy treatment: medications, antihistamines, desensitization and others

Once the allergy and the specific allergens causing the adverse reaction have been determined, the appropriate treatment can be selected. The patient's age, health status, presence of other diagnoses, clinical symptoms and their temporal occurrence are taken into account.

Treatment is primarily symptomatic, i.e. it relieves the patient's allergic symptoms and manifestations. The main key to therapy and prevention of allergic reactions is the elimination of contact with the allergen in question.

Avoidance of foods and food components causing an adverse reaction is necessary in food allergy.

Medicines and drugs administered to allergic patients can be divided into two groups. The first group is preventive drugs, which aim to attenuate and alleviate the clinical symptoms of allergy in the long term.

The second group are drugs used for acute relief when symptoms worsen. They are mainly intended for acute problems such as an asthma attack or a severe manifestation of allergic rhinitis.

Antihistamines are the most common form of therapy for inhalant allergens. They are among the longest-used drugs in allergy medicine.

The drugs block the effects of histamine, which increases excessively in the allergy sufferer's body when the allergen passes through the body, causing the allergy symptoms themselves. Antihistamines can be taken orally in the form of pills, drops or injections.

Corticosteroids are another type of allergy medication. These are hormonal anti-inflammatory drugs used for more serious or acute medical conditions.

The problem of their overall unwanted side effects with long-term use has been eliminated by topical application in the form of nasal sprays, drops, inhaled medications or skin preparations in the form of gels and ointments.

If the allergies occur mainly on the skin in the form of rashes or eczema, topical application of corticosteroids to alleviate the immune reaction is appropriate.

Another option is hyposensitisation (desensitisation), in which the patient is given gradually increasing amounts of a specially treated allergen by injection or special drops.

The aim of this form of treatment is to increase the allergy sufferer's tolerance to the allergen in question. However, it is a long-term treatment in cooperation with the patient.

The key to allergy treatment is therefore systematic, regular and long-term therapy, which is carried out in cooperation with the patient both in the resting and acute state of the allergy.

The purpose of comprehensive treatment is to stabilise the state of health, prevent the development of severe allergic symptoms, prevent the deterioration of the condition and, last but not least, prevent the allergy from progressing to the acute stage.

However, very often there is a violation of compliance with complex preventive treatment and interruption of therapy in the resting phase of the disease.