Safety and reliability of the drug tolerance test: our experience in 739 patients.
BACKGROUND
Drug tolerance tests (DTTs) are commonly used to find a safe therapeutic alternative for patients with previous type B adverse drug reactions (ADRs), but few studies on safety and reliability are available.


METHODS
We retrospectively studied 739 subjects with previous ADRs who underwent DTTs; 12 months after the test, use of the tested drug(s) and occurrence of ADRs were investigated in 260 of them.


RESULTS
ADRs to antibiotics and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were the main reasons for which DTTs were requested. 925 DTTs were performed in the 739 patients, with 97 ADRs. Twelve months after the test, 125/260 patients interviewed had used the tested drug(s): 118 of them experienced no ADR, 4 experienced 'true' ADRs, and 3 reported predictable/unclear reactions.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data show that DTTs are safe and reliable at 1 year, but patients and general practitioners do not trust them. It is strongly advisable to have better information on methods, benefits, risks and reliability of DTTs.
School and Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Department of Human Pathology, University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
Sebastiano
S
Gangemi
Claudio
C
Guarneri
Pietro
P
Romeo
Fabrizio
F
Guarneri
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D023422:Skin Irritancy Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D023382:Toxicity Tests, Acute / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult