[Pharmacotherapy of allergic diseases]

The treatment of allergic diseases involves the avoidance--if possible--of identified allergens and immunotherapy including a specific hyposensitization and pharmacotherapy. The present review will focus on pharmacotherapy with those drugs that are relevant to several allergic diseases and not primarily used for the treatment of the pathophysiological changes of specific organs involved such as in asthma. The latter will be discussed elsewhere. Glucocorticoids are an example of drugs which have been used for a long time. However, recent progress in our outstanding of their mechanism of action has led to the possibility of developing new compounds with potentially fewer undesirable side effects. Antihistamines have been developed into new drug generations which are still effective with fewer side effects and which can now be applied in a once-daily regimen thus promoting patient compliance. A major progress has been made in the treatment of atopic dermatitis by introducing topically available calcineurinantagonists such as tacrolimus and pimecrolimus. The future will be characterised by both the development of drugs that are more specific with regard to their inflammatory target, which can be detected by using humanizied murine antibodies, and the subsequent development of small molecular compounds with a function similar to that of antibodies. New technologies such as the chip technology or proteonomics allow for the selection of compounds suitable for further clinical development.