ABSTRACT
Adverse drug reactions are referred as the ‘diseases of medical progress’, the inevitable price we pay for the benefits of modern drug therapy. Skin reactions are the most frequent manifestation of drug sensitivity. A variety of cutaneous adverse reactions, from mild, maculopapular eruptions to severe, life-threatening conditions, such as Stevens-Johnson syndrome, toxic epidermal necrolysis, exfoliative dermatitis, anaphylaxis, serum-sickness, hypersensitivity reactions and others, may be caused by drugs. Many drugs have been reported to cause hair loss. Commonly appearing as a diffuse alopecia, it affects women more frequently than men and is limited in most instances to the scalp. Bullous and vesicular drug eruptions are diseases in which blisters and vesicles occur as a complication of the administration of drugs. Drug-induced exfoliative dermatitis usually begins a few weeks or longer following the administration of a culpable drug. Drug-induced pigmentation on the skin, hair, nails and mucous membranes is a result of either melanin synthesis, increased lipofuscin synthesis, or post-inflammatory pigmentation.
