A report on a controlled clinical trial with conventional and one third conventional dose of dapsone administered orally once a week in lepromatous patients

Abstract

Therapeutic investigation with dapsone, administered orally in the conventional (10 mg/kg of body wt/wk Group A), and one third of the conventional dose (3.33 mg/kg of body wt/wk Group B), as a single dose once a wk to lepromatous cases, using double blind procedures over a period of 130 to 265 wk was concluded in September, 1973. The findings of the study showed: DDS administered as a single dose once a wk was therapeutically effective; one third the conventional dose was as effective (perhaps better) as the conventional dose; lepra reaction occurred in both the groups but tended to be more severe in Group A; and insomnia was a frequent and sometimes a disturbing side effect in this regimen of therapy.