Hives/urticaria—is this autoimmune?

[Jaybee00]

Lucky enough to get hives about 3 days ago—it’s really lovely (not).

The standard wisdom is that it is considered acute until 6 weeks, then it becomes chronic. Does this mean it becomes auto immune at this point?

Is hives related to ME/CFS at all?

My dermatologist told me to take cetirizine (Zyrtec) and famotidine, but these don’t seem to be doing much.

Anybody else get this? How long did it last? What did your doctor prescribe for you?

I guess if it doesn’t go away after 6 weeks, they can consider prescribing bigger guns like Xolair.

 

[Mij]

I get HSV herpes itchy blisters quite frequently. Three days ago one started on my abdomen and thigh. I thought it was shingles again, but I didn't feel pain and I'm still unsure whether it's shingles or not.

I used to call them hives years ago, but they are not.

I hope you find some relief.

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

The standard wisdom is that it is considered acute until 6 weeks, then it becomes chronic. Does this mean it becomes auto immune at this point?

No. Hives is normally considered due to an IgE mediated atopic or hypersensitivity response, not an autoimmune response. It can probably also be mediated by complement and other Igs but generally not as part of autoimmunity. It can also just be due to histamine from stings of course.

My understanding was that 'hives' only refers to an acute transient phenomenon - maybe lasting a few days at most. If it lasts longer maybe it should not be called hives but dermatologists may differ.

I don't think we have good evidence for a link to ME/CFS but there used to be a lot of folklore about ME/CFS and allergies. Judging by what members say here it is not particularly prevalent in ME/CFS - it is a very common phenomenon anyway.

A hives rash is most often a drug reaction. It can also be a reaction to foods. If local it is likely to be due to contact with plants or detergents in linen.

There are a whole lot of less common rashes that look like hives initially but I wouldn't want to comment specifically.

In my experience antihistmines do not do much for drug rashes.