Rash with hydroxychloroquine?

[aehorn]

Just diagnosed with RA a few months ago. Started this medication 200 mg of hydroxychloroquine and after 3.5 weeks I broke out with rash on belly . Stopped taking it a little over a week ago. Rash has spread to let’s, arms and chest with hard little bumps on skin as well. Sun makes it worse. Also extremely anxious and had a panic attack at my job and had to come home. Depressed. How long will it take until this medication is out of my body? Anyone have similar experience? What do do next?

[chrisb4]

Hi aehorn. I too had a rash with hydroxychloroquine, chest, legs, arms and tummy. Doctor advised me to stop taking it and to contact my rheumatologist. It took over a week to go and was then prescribed leflunomide. Hope you get sorted soon. x

[Hidden in reply to chrisb4]

What dosage were you taking

[aehorn in reply to Hidden]

200 mg once a day. Stopped 9 days ago.

[aehorn in reply to chrisb4]

How is new drug working for you?

[Hidden in reply to aehorn]

I don’t know the dosages, I know that I should, just too many things to deal with and a carrier bag of crap to take every month., I am sorting out my meds today and adding them to the app on my phone. Fed up as my hands are curling like a monkey 🐒

Shame I have responsibilities or I would go and have some fun. I am a quiet neighbour but would love to go and start my car now and let rip through the village to wake my neighbour to the sound of a v10 as he is so grumpy, he does not even speak

[chrisb4 in reply to aehorn]

Working ok at the moment, need blood tests every month and blood pressure tested.

[chrisb4 in reply to chrisb4]

I was on 400 mg a day and rash stared in my third week of taking hydroxychloroquine.

[aehorn in reply to chrisb4]

That’s when mine started. Sun seems to make the rash bad. How long did it last? I can feel a flair starting in my red , inflamed toes in both feet!

[chrisb4 in reply to aehorn]

Oh, bless you. Rash went after about two weeks.

[DelicateInput in reply to aehorn]

It definitely sounds like prickly heat. Try an antihistamine which might help.. You might also find water pressure, like a shower or swimming, will make it worse if it is prickly heat. Salt water in the sea particularly exacerbates prickly heat.

I used to suffer from prickly heat when young but age seems to have withered it as my skin toughened up and I started to take hormone treatments for other conditions (especially masculine hormone treatments). I had the ultra white skin that goes with red hair and is very sensitive and prone to skin allergies to make up, metals, chemicals, creams etc.

You will need to switch to another medication. However, check which brand of Hydroxychloroquine you are taking. Quinoric has a bad record for causing stomach problems and the coating on the tablets causes irritation and diarrhoea. You might want to try another brand in the course of time. I doubt it is the drug itself.

[wishbone in reply to DelicateInput]

I've been on 400mg hydroxy (Teva brand) for the last two years and have acid reflux/indigestion, which started roughly about then, but difficult to be sure of the timing . Do you think hydroxy could be the cause(?) as I don't take any other stomach irritants having stopped anti-inflammatories and aspirin some time back, which has helped. Acid reflux has got worse this past week or two and is starting to really trouble me despite taking omeprazole. I think I need to try stopping hydroxy by the seem of it, especially as I've recently started a new med which is working for me.

[DelicateInput in reply to wishbone]

I don't really know but others on here might have similar experiences.

All of the posts I have seen on here about hydroxychloroquine causing stomach problems relate to the Quinoric brand. I had a problem with it - diarrhoea every morning. This symptom alarmed the GP as she made an urgent cancer referral and I had a colonoscopy and endoscopy, and the endoscopy revealed a stomach ulcer plus chronic gastritis.

I started off with the Zentiva brand of Hydroxychloroquine and had no problems. However, I had problems as soon as I switched to Quinoric. A lot of people on here have had stomach problems and diarrhoea with Quinoric. It is not the hydroxy drug itself but the coating on the Quinoric brand that irritates the stomach.

However, I also had two stomach bugs - h-pylori and listeria - and needed antibiotics. I also had a problem with Naproxen. Therefore, in my case it was not the Quinoric alone that caused the problem though the hospital said it was. It wasn't though because I continued to have diarrhoea until last month, though not as bad and it was improving, and on the second day of taking an antibiotic called clarithromycin last month , the diarrhoea stopped completely.

A lot of these drugs do produce excess stomach acid so in my opinion it probably is causing it but I am no expert. Unless somebody on here can help, it might stop if you come off it. However, if it has caused gastritis or a stomach ulcer, I am not sure whether the diarrhoea will continue. Sorry I can't be more helpful. It is a right old business and the colonoscopy was awful.

[wishbone in reply to DelicateInput]

Interesting, thanks for that DelicateInput,

It certainly is a right old business! I stopped aspirin and naproxen some time ago, which has helped, but the reflux is now worse than ever. I'm going to see how I go without hydroxy, if my RA gets worse then I can always go back on it and will try changing to Zentiva brand if I do. Just hope these meds haven't damaged my stomach. I never took much naproxen because of a previous heart attack, so hopefully not.

[Triscichick]

I have lupus and took Hydroxychloroquinone. After about a month, I started breaking out in hives. It took a month until the level of the drug in my body reached the point where I had an allergic reaction. It took nearly a month after I stopped taking it for the hives to completely go away.

[DelicateInput in reply to Triscichick]

This always happens with skin allergies. You can safely use a particular make up or cream for a while then all of a sudden a terrible allergic reaction happens.

[aehorn in reply to Triscichick]

sounds just like mine. What drug did you take next? They don't know if it's lupus or RA for me.

[PassingShadow]

I started taking hydroxychloroquine once a week. I'm on my 4th week. On the evening of my 4th week, my skin started itching. I thought it was dry skin, but it got worse. After a shower, I noticed that I had a red rash on my stomach. It got enen worse, and now covers my whole back, thighs & less on my chest. This rash looks exyreme after a shower. My scalp itches like crazy. So far, it isn't on my arms or face. Today is my 5th day, and I have raised red welts in all of those places. I am going to stop taking hydroxychloroquine. I've only had this type of rash when I took a strong antibiotic yrears ago. This is not something I can live with. I do expect for it to go away. I've had rashes on my skin before (not this severe). I conclued that those rashes were from detergent not fully rinsed from my sweaty workout clothes. By the way, I've found that if I use a very small amount of "free & natural" no-fragrance detergent, I won't have the type of rash resulting from a reaction to detergent.

[KittyJ in reply to PassingShadow]

PassingShadow this post is 4 years old so you may not get a response 😊