When stopping steroid creams makes your skin worse

A typical pattern of red burning skin syndrome on the lower arms and hands of a patient. — Wikimedia Commons

There is little awareness, particularly among clinicians, of the medical and psychological complexities of topical steroid withdrawal, warn doctors in the medical journal BMJ Case Reports.

This condition is the body’s adverse response to the prolonged use of these powerful creams to treat inflammatory skin conditions when they are either tapered or suddenly stopped.