Drug rash despite being on steroids.
Posted , 2 users are following.
Despite taking 45 mg a day of prednisolone for GCA I have developed a tremendous drug allergy rash. I took a small dose of codeine linctus to help with a cough and the next morning I noticed spots all over my chest and abdomen. It has gradually got worse and 5 days on the spots have run into each other and formed flat pink areas. As prednisolone is used to treat drug rashes how is it possible that this happened? 5 days on it seems to be spreading.
I have just been prescribed an antihistamine which I hope will help as the itching is driving me crazy.. Has anyone else had this experience whilst on high steroids?
0 likes, 3 replies
EileenH Lizfor
Posted
I developed an allergy to the ACE ihibitor I was given for atrial fibrillation despite being on 20mg steroids at the time. An antihistamine didn't do much at all and I wasn't impressed at being handed a wet wash cloth to soothe it overnight! (I was in hospital). The nursing staff were very dismissive - the doctor jumped a bit when I showed it to him and stopped the drug immediately - the rash had started around my neck and then spread outwards and downwards and by then was half way down my arms!
t all depends what the mechanism of the allergy is I suspect. Is your GP SURE it is an allergy to the codeine linctus? It may be coincidence it happened then if it is continuing to get worse.
dermnetnz has a good article about morbilliform drug eruption - the fancy name for it. They say autoimmune disorders are a predisposing factor and that antihistamines often don't help.
And the University of Maryland medical center site on their cutaneous drug reactions says corticosteroids may also cause it - so it may have been the combination of steroid plus codeine or whatever it was in the linctus that triggered it. They also make suggestions for things you can try to heal the reaction more quickly. Their site is very good and reliable - so worth a google search.
Lizfor EileenH
Posted
Thank you Eileen, I shall look up those references. I think it was very probably the codeine, the problem being they didn't address it straight away so it ran wild for 5 days. They seemed only concerned if it affected my breathing not about the rash!
I took a Fexofenodene 180 at lunch time. Not much relief so far but perhaps a slight lessening of itchyness. Needless to say no sleep at all last night. I had a bottle of calamine which turned out to be watery and useless ( whatever happened to the thick chalky stuff) and apart fron that I used ice. I've never had a reaction as severe as this but I think it should have been nipped in the bud.
I am off to do a bit of reading to see if I can have a better night. 😕
EileenH Lizfor
Posted
Yes, that was really the nursing staff's response to my complaints of itchiness! But it reduced me to tears on that last night! You have my sympathy - it was horrible.