Medication Toxicity in the Connective Tissue Diseases

Abstract

Treatment of connective tissue disease patients is made difficult by the potentially severe toxicity associated with the medications used. Further, there is extensive overlap between disease-associated manifestations and the adverse drug reactions. The adverse drug reactions mainly affect the dermatological, gastrointestinal, hematologic, reproductive, and pulmonary systems. This review will outline the spectrum of adverse drug reactions in these systems and will review specifics for the appropriate use and monitoring of disease modifying antirheumatic drugs for the treatment of connective tissue diseases. It includes discussion of the role of history, blood chemistries, pulmonary function tests, radiological and invasive procedures in the monitoring of these medications. Close attention was paid to published guidelines when available and to what is known about the pathophysiology in the other cases with recommendations designed to minimize toxicity and cost.

Key Words:

DMARDs - ADRs and monitoring