Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee has narrowly voted to recommend that the indication for Eli Lilly’s antidepressant Cymbalta (duloxetine) be expanded to include use as a treatment for chronic musculoskeletal pain. The Anesthetic and Life Support Drugs Advisory Committee also voted that the benefits were minimal but outweighed the risks, which includes a black box warning of suicidality in children, adolescents and young adults; a potential for liver damage; and a risk of developing the rare skin disease Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS) and its more serious form, toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN).

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A New Hampshire jury will decide whether a drug company is liable for $24 million in damages from its prescription anti-inflammatory medication that caused a woman to suffer from a severe reaction that caused painful burns to break out on her skin and internal organs and made her go blind.

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“For me, just being here alive is a story to tell,” Karyl Bell told WNYT-TV. In October 2009, the then-17-year-old unexpectedly developed a rash on her face. Her tongue swelled and she had trouble swallowing and breathing. Her condition quickly worsened. Red, painful blisters broke out on her body. Lesions in her eyes caused her eyes to swell shut. All doctors could tell her worried mother was to sit by as the reaction ran its course and, “hope for the best.”

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Discovery Channel viewers who watched a recent episode of Mystery Diagnosis were as stumped as doctors when the show featured the case of Baby Julie, a 10-month-old who began taking anti-seizure medication after suffering two seizures. Shortly afterward, her eyes swelled shut and she developed strange blisters on her back. She was diagnosed with conjunctivitis, or red eye, in both eyes and the common childhood virus, chickenpox. But her condition worsened.

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The Epilepsy Foundation is warning people who take Dilantin or Lamictal to control their seizures that the medications can cause users to suffer from a rare but serious skin condition known as Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS).

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Kisandra said she felt like a lab rat the day a team of doctors studied the blisters that had sprung up all over her body and pored through thick medical books trying to find what had made her sick. She had just been given Biaxin, an antibiotic, to treat a stomach ulcer. Shortly after starting the medication she developed a fever and blisters on her face, arms, torso and hands.

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On September 21, 2008, Kendra Schmidt was pushed in a wheelchair through the track of the Fox Cities Marathon. “My sister ran it that year and my husband (Mike) pushed me,” she told the Post Crescent. But Kendra was determined. “I knew I’d run in it eventually.”

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The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is warning the public about a medication used to treat a type of glaucoma because users could develop a serious and life threatening allergic reaction known as Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS). Neptazane (methazolamide) is a sulfonamide derivative available as 25 mg and 50 mg tablets used in the treatment of an eye condition called open-angle glaucoma. This type of glaucoma is caused by a gradual blockage of the outflow of fluid in the front compartment of the eye over a period of years, causing a slow rise in pressure. It is also used in the type called acute angle-closure glaucoma, when pressure within the eye must be lowered before surgery. The medication should not be used for any other type of glaucoma.

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The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has issued a warning about the childhood MMRV vaccine for measles-mumps-rubella-chickenpox, saying it may cause the painful and life-threatening allergic reaction known as Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS) as well as other serious reactions.

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Famotidine, the heartburn drug most known by the brand name Pepcid, is yet another drug that has been linked to a deadly skin reaction known as toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), the most serious version of Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS). Famotidine is available by both prescription and over-the-counter in either a tablet or suspension (liquid) that is taken by mouth. It is in a class of medications called H2 blockers and works by decreasing the amount of acid made in the stomach. Famotidine is used to treat ulcers, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and conditions where the stomach produces too much acid.

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