Dapsone

[Guest Educator]

I've been on Dapsone for about a month now and was taken off because of HIGH liver enzymes. They were 5 X their normal range. Does dapsone cause a rise in liver enzymes? Once you are on it, do you have to stay on it for your lifetime? If you stop it, do you break out within a few days? I have. I started taking it again without my doctor's approval because the DH came back worse than it was prior to the dapsone. Any comments?

[Ursa Major]

To keep taking the Dapsone when your liver enzymes are that high is a huge mistake, don't do it. You may go into liver failure! Yes, Dapsone is known to damage the liver, that's why your doctor has to monitor it.

Have you started the gluten-free diet? That really is the only viable treatment for DH, the Dapsone is just supposed to calm things down until the deposits under the skin from gluten are cleared out, which takes one to two years (in rare cases up to five). It would be quite dangerous to stay on Dapsone for the rest of your life, and is certainly not recommended.

[lovegrov]

Given your rise in liver enzymes and all the other things you have going on, the only real advice we can give you is to be completely gluten-free.

richard