Drug Challenge

If it is suspected that a particular drug or group of drugs is causing a set of allergic symptoms, and if the usual tests do not confirm allergy (in the case of drug reactions this is often so) then a drug challenge test might be the only way of either confirming the reaction, or, more commonly, confirming that a particular drug can be tolerated without problem.

This kind of testing is only really needed when a particular drug is very important to the patient.  For example, a patient on insulin and encountering possible insulin allergy needs to establish which insulin can be used without problem.  A patient who has had a reaction after local anaesthetic needs to know which local anaesthetic is safe if a doctor or dentist needs to use one in the future.

Incremental drug challenge tests are available for insulin, streptokinase, chymopapain, and antiserum.