Knee pain, a little anti-inflammatory gel to go for a walk without suffering too much, and a kind of very localized sunburn? It is one of the great unknown classics of the photosensitizing effect of a large number of treatments.
The sky has returned to the big blue, and watch out if you started treatment during the storms, or if you just took an anti-inflammatory gel at the pharmacy. Géraldine Zamansky, journalist for the Magazine de la Santé on France 5, talks to us today about a little-known side effect, of certain drugs that make the skin much more fragile in the face of the sun.
franceinfo: Do you have to look carefully at the instructions for these drugs?
Geraldine Zamansky: Exactly. Sometimes, the alert is present on the box, with a small drawing of the sun behind a cloud, in a red triangle. But this pictogram has not yet been adopted by all manufacturers, so it is always better to check the instructions. And the example of an anti-inflammatory gel is very well chosen. You will then read that in the event of exposure to the sun, it can cause, I quote, “potentially serious skin reactions, known as photosensitization”.
The effects range from a kind of sunburn, to real burns requiring hospitalization. And sometimes even, under a veiled sky. Because all it takes is a little UV rays to make certain substances contained in this gel toxic to the skin: it no longer reacts normally to the sun.
Ending up with a burn to have less pain in the knee or ankle, is it common?
This is one of the most reported adverse effects, according to Professor Mathieu Molimard, head of the pharmacovigilance department at the Bordeaux University Hospital. Because the people affected make the link easily: “That’s where I put the cream”. But this type of problem can also occur with certain antibiotics, acne treatments, or birth control pills. Even taken in tablets, they diffuse through the bloodstream to the skin.
So, either we see quite quickly an immediate local reaction, between the sun and the molecules of these drugs, a bit like for the gel, and the effect is limited to the areas affected by UV, and on the photos: we see precisely the shape of a T-shirt for example. Either a more general allergy is triggered, sometimes several hours later, with an attack on the whole body. In these cases, Professor Molimard explains that the link with the sun and the treatment was more difficult to make.
But anyway, if you really need your antibiotic treatment for example, the only solution is to get in the shade?
Exactly. And if we take the notice of the gel for example, it is very clear. It is even necessary to always cover the area of skin concerned by clothing, during the treatment, and the two weeks which follow. The time that all the compounds present, are well eliminated. To protect the face, take a hat associated with a total screen, which will also be used for the hands.