A review of therapeutic and hemolytic effects of dapsone

CLINICIANS in the army and in civilian practice will probably use sulfone drugs with increasing frequency. After extensive use of sulfones for the past 25 years, dapsone (DDS), the parent sulfone, remains foremost in the therapy of leprosy throughout the world.¹Introduction of dapsone into dermatologic practice in the United States²,³followed reports describing the salutary effects of the sulfone on certain chronic skin diseases.⁴,⁵Recently, the emergence of falciparum malaria resistant to chloroquine and other synthetic antimalarial drugs⁶,⁷led to an evaluation of dapsone in the therapy of these refractory strains.⁸Results of field trials have encouraged the US Army to add dapsone to their regimen for malaria prophylaxis.⁹ A consideration of this effective but potentially toxic drug seems timely in view of its rapidly increasing use in civilian and military practice. Since extensive reviews of sulfones have appeared in the literature,¹,¹⁰⁻¹⁴