Three patients who presented with severe poison ivy were treated with oral prednisone plus 50 mg/day of DHEA, tapered to 25 mg/day after 1-3 doses. Most lesions resolved within 1-4 days. Based on the patients' past experiences with poison ivy, the response to DHEA plus prednisone appeared to be substantially better than what would have been expected with prednisone alone.

Comment: Systemic glucocorticoids such as prednisone are often used to treat severe episodes of poison ivy dermatitis. Glucocorticoid treatment suppresses adrenal secretion of DHEA, a hormone that modulates immune function in a number of different ways. The results of the present study suggest that short-term treatment with DHEA enhances the beneficial effect of glucocorticoids in patients with severe poison ivy. Additional studies are needed to confirm these preliminary findings. As the poison ivy season is now upon us, readers are urged to administer DHEA to patients who require glucocorticoids for severe poison ivy dermatitis, and to report their findings in a letter to the Townsend Letter.

Geracioti TD Jr. DHEA supplementation of systemic glucocorticoids for treatment of poison ivy dermatitis. Int J Dermatol 2005;44:974-976.