Food allergy clinical syndromes

Psychogenic food intolerance can be due to simple distaste or to overt phobia. We have applied the term pseudo-food allergy to a clinical syndrome in which patients with common psychiatric disorders come to attribute their problems to food allergy in the absence of any objective evidence of organic intolerance. Patients have also been described who have deliberately simulated allergic manifestations in themselves or their children Munchausen s syndrome and Munchausen s syndrome by proxy (Hendrix et al, 1981). 

Clinical relevant cross-reactivity between crustacean and house dust mite allergens has been described (Witteman et al. 1994) and the term mite-crustaceans-mollusk-syndrome is sometimes used. The primary sensitization is believed mostly to be respiratory allergy to dust mites, which then sometimes causes food allergic reactions to crustaceans or mollusks in some individuals. However, there are also observations on allergy to mites or cockroaches possible occurring subsequent to... 

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