Topical Steroid Addiction (TSA) – A Challenge for Change - 7/8

Topical Steroid Addiction (TSA) – A Challenge for Change – 7/8

My “White Paper” (Blog 28) issues a challenge to all involved in caring for the community of suffering TSA patients to change their misguided course. All the dermatologists and practicing physicians, all the patient support groups, all the eczema societies, all the editors and peer reviewers of the journals in which my papers were published, and finally the President and Board of Directors of the American Academy of Dermatology are being addressed and challenged to make a seismic shift in their attitudes. Will there be a willingness and open mindedness to change the existing long-term pattern of misunderstanding misdiagnosis and mistreatment? The eczema support organizations particularly the National Eczema Association (NEA) are challenged to change their approach to this problem and stop asking for more donations, funding, trips, or legislations to beg for more unnecessary research. They must be willing to absorb the decrease in funding from pharmaceutical companies and other public and/or private sources. The answer is already here: NO steroids and the patients need to be directed to appropriate and caring physicians to aid them through their withdrawal process to cure. No further data is needed. No more money is required.

Only one who is in pain really senses nothing but himself.

Hannah Arendt

3200 cured patients demonstrate that there is no “bad” eczema warranting newer and potentially more dangerous interventions. Instead, the worsening conditions of patients’ eczema are due to the prolonged usage of corticosteroids – the misguided dermatological standard for five decades. All 3200 of my patients were treated with only one changed variable – the cessation of all corticosteroids – and they were all cured.

By Dr Marvin Rapaport, MD|2021-10-19T03:16:49-07:00November 30th, 2015|RSS Patients, White Paper|Comments Off

About the Author: Dr Marvin Rapaport, MD

In 1978 I initiated and set up the contact and photo dermatitis clinic at UCLA. There was a need to evaluate a large group of patients who exhibited severe eczematoid rashes, especially on the face. Patients were referred from all over Southern California. All patients underwent a lengthy history and examination. Further evaluations included blood studies, allergy patch testing, special sunlight (photo) testing and skin biopsies. From the start it was apparent that most patients experienced a mild dermatitis on various parts of the body that progressively worsened. Their histories always included numerous doctor visits, multiple physicians, and therapy consisting of an increasing amount of corticosteroids. My testing failed to reveal any specific culprit chemicals, cosmetics, perfumes, workplace or recreational exposures. It became increasingly clear that the physician’s therapy, the corticosteroids, was invariably causing the problem. I wrote 7 scientific articles that were published in the most august peer-reviewed dermatologic journals and I gave many lectures at various dermatology meetings. To this day an unfortunate reluctance exists on the part of most physicians to accept this simple concept.