Codeine is a medication which is used to treat mild to moderate pain. Nausea, vomiting and constipation are some of its side effects. In rare cases, codeine can cause allergy – resulting in symptoms such as hives, itching, and swelling of lips. If your parents or grandparents have codeine allergy, chances are that you might be allergic to it too.
Codeine allergy occurs only after subsequent exposure to the medication. After taking codeine for the second or third time, the immune system reacts, resulting in an allergy. If you experience allergy symptoms, do consult your doctor. Replacing codeine with other medication can solve the problem.
Most people experience side-effects and confuse them with allergy. Knowing the true allergy symptoms can help you to detect a true allergy. Given below are codein allergy symptoms and codeine side effects.
Codeine Allergy Symptoms
Codeine can result in the following allergic symptoms:
- Hives
- Swelling of lips and tongue
- Itching
- Difficulty breathing
- Dizziness
If you experience the above symptoms after taking codeine, do consult your doctor.Swelling of lips, breathlessness, dizziness are indicative of a severe allergic reaction. In such cases, the patient should be immediately given epinephrine.
Codeine side effects
Following are the side-effects of codeine:
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Headache
- Constipation
Preventing Codeine Allergy
- If you experience allergy symptoms, consult your doctor. Your doctor may recommend other painkiller medications such as Demerol or Fentanyl
- Taking benadryl before taking codeine may help in reducing the allergy symptoms
- Allergy testing can help you to detect if you have codeine allergy
After suffering a few times with aggravated itching and blistering of the genital area(penis),i was told that i am allergic to CODEINE.
Is this normal as i dont see it as one of the side effects or allergy symptoms?
It starts about 10 minutes after drinking certain pain pills and itches terribly and the tip of my penis develops a blister all around which is very painful afterwards.
Any feedback in this regard will be appreciated.
Thank you