CONTACT DERMATITIS FROM OPIUM DERIVATIVES

Abstract

Drug eruptions from the ingestion of or parenteral use of morphine, codeine and other opium derivatives are well known to dermatologists. Most American authors of textbooks on dermatology include opium and its derivatives as a cause of drug eruptions. Scheer and Keil 1 in 1934 called attention to codeine as a cause of dermatitis medicamentosa. Touraine 2 in 1936 exhaustively described drug eruptions from opium compounds. Many morphologic types of eruption have been produced by the ingestion of or parenteral use of opium compounds. The most common are urticarial, morbilliform or scarlatiniform, but eczematous eruptions in which the chief allergic response is at the same site as in contact dermatitis have been described. Thus opium compounds are capable of producing not only an urticarial and scarlatiniform eruption but also an eczematous response when taken internally by ingestion or injection. Eczematous dermatitis from opium compounds used externally in the form of