title: Adverse effects of multi-drug therapy in leprosy, a two years' experience (2006-2008) in tertiary health care centre in the tribal region of Chhattisgarh State (Bastar, Jagdalpur).
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the adverse effects of multi drug therapy (MDT) in leprosy patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective and descriptive study carried out in Department of Dermatology, Government Medical College, Jagdalpur. The adverse effects were recorded on the personal record of every individual patient, filled during the course of treatment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  176 patient's records were analysed, looking for adverse effects. Among the 176 patients, 79 had adverse effects due to one or more components of MDT, 73 had adverse effects due to dapsone, eight due to rifampicin and 16 due to clofazimine. Mean (+/- SD) duration for the development of adverse effects from the start of therapy was 1.99 (+/- 0.69) months for dapsone, 36 (+/- 0.68) months for rifampicin and 7.13 (+/- 0.79) months for clofazimine. There was a significant (P < 0.05) correlation between adverse effects and low Body Mass Index (BMI). The suspected drug was stopped and an alternative regime started in nine patients; six had dapsone stopped, two had rifampicin stopped and one had clofazimine stopped.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Adverse effects attributed to MDT are comparable to previous studies and we found that ADR due to Dapsone was very high but most of the ADR were managed by supportive treatment without replacing the suspected drug.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Govt. Medical College, Jagdalpur (C.G), India. dr_harminderchahal@rediffmail.com
authors.forename: Harminder
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Bithika
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nel
authors.forename: Vivek
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Dey
authors.forename: Pawan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tiwari
authors.forename: Naveen
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dulhani
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002991:Clofazimine / Q000009:adverse effects; D003622:Dapsone / Q000009:adverse effects; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007917:Leprostatic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects*; D007918:Leprosy / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012293:Rifampin / Q000009:adverse effects; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D007917:Leprostatic Agents; D003622:Dapsone; D002991:Clofazimine; D012293:Rifampin