Journal of

---

Background and Aim: Adverse drug reactions are inevitable outcomes of drug therapy, which may cause mortality and morbidity for those whom are treated in this way. Cutanous adverse drug reactions are abserved in 2% to 3% of inpatients but only 2% of them are considered serious and may cause death. The aim of this study was to determine the cause and clinical forms of adverse drug reactions referred to department of dermatology.

Methods: This cross-sectional study that was done on patients with diagnosis of cutanous adverse drug reactions in 2007 and 2009. All patients suspected with diagnosis of adverse drug reactions were examined by an experienced dermatologist for determination of different kinds of clinical manifestations.

Results: During the study period, 308 patients were recruited. Cutanous adverse drug reactions were found to be more frequent in females (63%) than in males (37%). Betalactam antibiotics were found to be the most frequent cause of adverse cutaneous drug reactions (42.7%), followed by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (16.5%). Acute urticaria was the most frequent observed drug reaction (59.2%) followed by fixed drug eruption (18.5%) and maculopapular rashes (14.9%).

Conclusion: In this study adverse cutaneous drug reactions was mainly induced by betalactam antibiotics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The most common forms of cutaneous adverse drug reactions were found to be: acute urticaria, fixed drug eruption and maculopapular rashes.

---

Urticaria is a common and challenging skin disorder. Diagnosis and treatment of urticaria is not limited to the field of dermatology. General physicians, allergologists and clinical immunologists are also commonly involved in the management of patients with urticaria.

---

Urticaria is a relatively common skin disease characterized by red or white itchy and transient swellings. In more severe cases, it can reduce level of consciousness and be life-threatening due to swelling of tongue or throat and airway obstruction
In conventional medicine, this disease is treated symptomatic and mainly by antihistamines. Studies have indicated that urticaria is similar to "shara" (a type of skin disease mentioned in Persian medicine) in terms of etiology, description, clinical symptoms and diagnosis. In Persian medicine (Iranian traditional medicine) litrature, efficacy of several medicinal plants for the treatment of "shara" has been explaind.

This study is a review on the effective herbal remedies in the treatment of urticaria based on search in Iranian medicine resources, and conventional medicine litrature. Data were extracted from Iranian medicine textbooks and scientific databases including Google scholar, Pub Med, Web of Science and Scopus. It was found that Iranian medicine scholars have used 48 different medicinal plants to treat and reduce the complications of urticaria and the recent scientific studies have proven antiinflammatory, antioxidant and immune-regulating properties in 45 of these plants.

---

Urticaria is a common and challenging skin disorder. Diagnosis and treatment of urticaria is not limited to the field of dermatology. General physicians, internal medicine specialists, allergologists and clinical immunologists are also commonly involved in the management of patients with urticaria.
Iranian Society of Dermatology developed a clinical practice guideline concerning diagnosis and treatment of urticaria that was published in 2018. The current guideline is the result of scientific papers that got published from April 2018 to August 2022.