Food Allergy Diagnosis

Early Diagnosis
The diagnosis of food allergy is still based mainly on detailed medical history and complete physical examination of the subject. Clinical or laboratory tests serve only as an additional tool to confirm the diagnosis. The surveys include the standard skin tests such as skin prick tests and in vitro tests for specific IgE antibodies, and the oral tests by triggering food. The latter when properly executed will continue to be the gold standard in the diagnostic. Recently, non-conventional diagnostic methods are increasingly being used, but can not replace the previous, the risk that the results are not correlated with the cause of food allergy.

Psychological aspects
The lack of appropriate means of investigation of the psychological impact of food allergies in patients and their families, makes it difficult to quantify the implications of this disease frequently psychopathological risconttro especially youth in the population. It being understood that psychological factors do not allow us to predict the severity of symptoms in patients with hypersensitivity to food allergy.

The first study that confirms the presence of an 'association between allergies and mood disorders and' anxiety according to the criteria of the DMS IV is the Canadian study by Patten SB, Williams JV, and 2007. Lillestøl K, et al. 2010 evaluates depression and anxiety, with suitable scales and questionnaires, in subjects with a diagnosis of IBS and food allergy (self reported), noting with the criteria of DSM-IV anxiety disorder increased by 34% and 16 % for the depressive.

Herbert LJ, et al. in 2008 notes that in subjects with food allergy, who have experienced an episode of anaphylaxis from allergic subjects who had no episodes, self-esteem levels are lower and are detectable anxious and depressive traits, as well as indicating an episode of anafillassi can be a reliable indicator of psychological stress.