Avoiding The Dangers of A Corticosteroid Cream With An Eczema Treatment
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010The eczema treatment of choice for numerous decades continues to be to prescribe one of the many topical corticosteroid creams or ointments. The irritating skin condition does ordinarily respond well to these treatments but there are side effects to their use that aren’t often explained to sufferers. Corticosteroid use has both localized and systemic side effects, particularly with continuous or repeated usage.
The most common localized side effect is hypopigmentation, which is a fancy term meaning skin which is lighter than customary. You’ll regularly see the consequences of this on eczema sufferers in the fold of the arms where it is mostly found. This effect is more noticeable in the summertime when an individual tans and can be blotchy or dirty looking. Another common side effect of an eczema treatment involving steroid creams is that the skin will become thinned after prolonged use. These medicines are supposed to be used for a short period or sporadically, not on a daily long-term basis.
Systemic unwanted effects to eczema treatment are regularly seen with infants or small children, but can also appear in adults after extremely lengthy periods of use or overuse. The adrenal glands can become suppressed and growth might be hindered. Steroid drugs should be held as a final choice with very young kids and then used for as short a time period as possible to avoid systemic effects.
If you do have to treat yourself or your kids for eczema, use the least powerful form available for the type of skin condition you have. Also make sure you treat for only as long as required. Keep in mind, with these creams, more is not necessarily more efficient. You need to use only a thin coating of the lotion, not slathering it on excessively. Leave these medications as a final resort and you can often avoid the need to use one at all.
