Medical therapy for systemic lupus erythematosus.

The many clinical manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) result in the involvement of many specialties of medicine in its treatment. An understanding of the indications, potential side-effects, and toxicity monitoring required of common agents used as medical therapy in SLE disease management is important for all providers who care for lupus patients. Pharmacological therapy is based on the type and severity of clinical manifestation and involves four primary classes of drugs: non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs, antimalarials, corticosteroids, and immunosuppressives/cytoxics.