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By Mayo Clinic staffBefore recommending a skin test, your doctor will ask detailed questions about your medical history, your signs and symptoms, and your usual way of treating them. Your answers can help your doctor determine if allergies run in your family and if you might also have them.
Next, your doctor will perform a physical examination to search for additional clues about the causes of your signs and symptoms.
Your medical history and physical examination may provide enough information for your doctor to discuss your diagnosis and treatment. If so, a skin test may be unnecessary. But if your doctor is uncertain or suspects that you have allergies and needs more information about the possible causes, he or she may recommend that you have a skin test.
Medications can interfere with results
Before scheduling a skin test, your doctor will need a list of all your prescription and over-the-counter medications. Some medications can suppress allergic reactions, preventing the skin testing from working effectively. Other medications may increase your risk of developing a severe allergic reaction during a test.
Because medications clear out of your system at different rates, your doctor may ask that you stop taking certain medications for up to 10 days. Medications that can interfere with skin tests include:
- Prescription nonsedating antihistamines, such as fexofenadine (Allegra)
- Over-the-counter antihistamines (Claritin, Benadryl, Chlor-Trimeton, Zyrtec, others)
- Tricyclic antidepressants, such as amitriptyline and doxepin (Sinequan)
- Heartburn medications, such as cimetidine (Tagamet) and ranitidine (Zantac)
- Tips to remember: What is allergy testing? American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. http://www.aaaai.org/patients/publicedmat/tips/whatisallergytesting.stm. Accessed Feb. 24, 2009.
- Allergy testing. American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. http://www.acaai.org/public/background/testing.htm. Accessed Feb. 24, 2009.
- Demoly P, et al. In vivo methods for the study of allergy. In: Adkinson NF, et al. Middleton's Allergy: Principles and Practice. 7th ed. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby; 2008:1267.
