ABSTRACT
Lupus-inducing drugs are generally not cytotoxic at therapeutically relevant concentrations, a property which would have precluded their medicinal use, although activated lymphocytes were reported to be killed by chlorpromazine. Several lines of investigation suggest that lupus-inducing drugs can upregulate the immune system by causing non-specific lymphocyte activation. Since symptoms and serological features of drug-induced lupus (DIL) overlap with those of idiopathic systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), it is presumed that similar pathogenic factors underlie both syndromes. Drug-induced lupus is an idiosyncratic drug reaction associated with long-term exposure to several dozen medications currently in use. Symptoms and signs of drug-induced lupus resemble or overlap with those of SLE. However, diagnostic criteria for SLE should not be rigidly required in order to implicate a medication in causing lupus-like disease. Resolution of symptoms and laboratory abnormalities by withdrawing the offending drug is a defining feature of DIL.
