Dapsone in Treatment of Pemphigus

Abstract

Even today corticosteroids is the drug of choice in the management of pemphigus. The side effects of steroid therapy are significant and unavoidable because in majority of cases, the maintenance therapy may have to be continued for the life time of the patient. Dapsone was administered along with corticosteroids in 5 cases of pemphigus and 9 cases were treated on conventional lines. It is our observation that dapsone administered along with corticosteroids helps to reduce the daily requirement of steroids for controlling the disease and also to reduce the dose of steroids during maintenance therapy. The side effects of steroids observed were also minimum. We also observed that the disease is less common and less severe in Southern India than in Northern India.