Dermatology » Skin reactions

Skin reactions due to systemic drugs

Skin is the organ most frequently affected by adverse drug reactions. Nearly all drugs may induce skin reactions, usually they are mild but some are serious and potentially life-threatening. Drug reactions can present with almost every clinical and histological variant of skin disease. Some drugs elicit very specific tissue reactions such as erythema multiforme or a fixed drug reaction. In hospital, drugs reactions occur in upto 3 per cent of cases. Because of the wide variety of tissue reactions it is often a daunting task to know whether a rash is a primary skin dermatoses or a secondary drug reaction. Sometimes it is impossible to know for certain which drug has caused the reaction in such cases discontinuing the possible offending drug is recommended. Most drug reactions occur within 10 days after receiving the drug though there is a wide variability. Discontinuing the drug may still leave slow effects for weeks to months. Primary care physicians have an important role in identifying as well as reporting possible drug-induced skin reactions and to prevent their recurrence.

In order to proceed further, you need to have an account on IDG.
Create a new account now

Registered users, you can login below to access this page.