Recurrence of lp

Hi

I've had LP for just over a year now, some people have it longer, I think we are all different! First had it on arms and legs plus soles of feet. After these calmed down I now have VLP which to me is worse. I try to keep calm about it which is hard, but trying to stay calm helps. I think we all get frustrated and perhaps scared now and then but apart from using steroid cream (when needed) which I try to avoid, there isn't much we can do. Steroids or any other won't get rid of the spots just calms them down. I read recently that a child of 3yrs has lp so consider myself lucky. Wishing you all the best, stay strong.

Sorry--I don't mean to blast you with comments, but this is something I feel really compelled to respond to. When I had lichen planus the first time I was given some oral steroids. It sort of cleared up for a while but then came back even worse (and the steroids helped me to gain about 20 pounds).

The dermatologist I had kept giving me all the topical creams and stuff. They never helped me--They just made me even more frustrated with greasy skin.

I was downright depressed about the stuff--Couldn't sleep. Itching until I bled. All over my shins and forearms--It looked bad and felt even worse. I felt like I had to explain to everyone that I wasn't contagious or anything.

I think an issue here is that even many dermatologists aren't very experienced with LP. Its not something that they come across very often. I decided to try a different dermatologist just to see if another doc might have different advice.

This was back in 2000-2001, so any literature on the subject would have probably been fairly new. My new dermatologist, a young lady who seemed really, really sharp talked to me for a while. I told her about all the stuff that had already been tried. Anyway, this lady asked me if I was willing to give it a try. It was low risk--Just a common antibiotic.

I asked the same question most people would ask, "Why would an antibiotic work for LP? Its not a bacterial infection." She straight up said that they didn't really understand that mechanism by which it worked, only that it worked for a number of patients.

Within a few days of taking Metronidazole (I cannot remember the dosage) it started to get just a little better. As I recall, in a few weeks it was clearing up--No knew sores or spots and the itching was almost gone. Within a couple of months no more LP (just some scars, mostly on my shins).

It may not work for everyone, and I cannot find much information:

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1123213-medication

"Oral metronidazole has been shown to be an effective therapy for some patients. [8] Oral acitretin has been shown to be effective in published studies. [18] Many other treatments, including mycophenolate mofetil at 1-1.5 g twice daily, are of uncertain efficacy, owing to the paucity of experience. In a randomized double-blinded study, sulfasalazine at up to 2.5 g/day for 6 weeks showed improvement in lesions (>80%) and pruritus (>90%) in patients with generalized lichen planus."

I remember all too well the misery I was in, so I really want to share my experience here. It is kind of sad to know that others continue to deal with LP and most doctors don't seem to know about Metronidazole as a treatment (admittedly, antibiotic treatment doesn't seem obvious). At the same time, I've heard of people suffering with Lichen Planus being diagnosed as having eczema---Not all doctors are created equal!

I hope you can find a dermatologist who can help with this--Please share this with your doc. I'm curious to know if this works as well for others as it did for me.