Therapy
In the treatment of dermatomyositis, it is important to know whether a carcinoma has occurred in addition to the disease. In most cases, the removal of the tumour leads to a decrease in the disease. If the patient suffers exclusively from dermatomyositis, he should initially stay away from strong UV light radiation.
In addition, treatment is carried out with glucocorticoids, which are supposed to counteract the inflammation. If the disease is already well advanced or if it is a serious case, the patient should also take immunosuppressive drugs. These are drugs that suppress the immune system, as it erroneously attacks the body’s own cells in the case of illness.
If the immune system is suppressed, the wrong immune response can be minimized. In addition to immunosuppressants, cytostatic drugs can also be used. In most cases, the symptoms should improve significantly a few weeks after the therapy. In addition to the drug therapy, physiotherapy should be carried out to gradually rebuild the weakened muscles.
Prophylaxis
Since the exact causes of dermatomyositis are still unclear, it is difficult to prevent the disease. However, it is assumed that psychological stress and high UV radiation (for example, through exposure to sunlight or frequent visits to solariums) promote the disease. It is therefore important to reduce visits to the solarium to a minimum, especially if there have been similar illnesses in the family.
Forecast
The prognosis for dermatomyositis is poor. Within the first 2 years, 30% of all patients die, many of them due to the tumor disease; if the tumor is sufficiently treated, dermatomyositis can also successfully regress, so that life expectancy increases enormously. Due to the therapy with immunosuppressive drugs, many patients die of harmless infections, because the immune system is no longer able to control them.
Dermatomyositis is one of the disease patterns that cannot be cured yet, so that treatment can only relieve the symptoms and improve the quality of life. As it is an autoimmune disease, the therapy usually consists of suppressing the immune system in order to stop the erroneous reaction of the defence system with the body’s own structures (usually with glucocorticoids/cortisone or immunosuppressive drugs). However, this therapy must be carried out consistently over a long period of time, but a recurrence of the symptoms during or after the therapy as well as a worsening of the symptoms can never be 100% excluded.
The course of dermatomyositis is strongly dependent on whether it occurs as part of a tumorous disease or as an independent disease and therefore cannot be predicted in general. However, it has been shown that adequate drug treatment can at least significantly reduce the symptoms of the disease.
