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Review
. 2025 Jan;25(1):100282.
doi: 10.1016/j.clinme.2024.100282. Epub 2024 Dec 27.

The management of severe eczema in pregnancy

E Keeling  1 , C H Smith  2 , R T Woolf  3
Affiliations
Review

The management of severe eczema in pregnancy

E Keeling et al. Clin Med (Lond). 2025 Jan.

Abstract

Atopic eczema (eczema; also known as atopic dermatitis) is a chronic inflammatory skin condition. The burden of eczema can be very substantial with significant itch, skin pain, secondary infection, sleep disturbance and psychological distress. Eczema is common in pregnancy. It is therefore important to offer effective treatment to pregnant women, especially those with moderate to severe disease where the burden is greatest. When eczema cannot be adequately managed with skin-directed approaches such as topical preparations and/or phototherapy, systemic therapy may be required to achieve disease control and requires early input from dermatology specialists. The aim of this short review is to summarise this approach.

Keywords: Atopic dermatitis; Eczema; Pregnancy; Skin directed treatments; Systemic treatment.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Catherine Smith reports a relationship with biomap (biomap-IMI.eu) that includes funding grants. Catherine Smith reports a relationship with hippocrates (hippocrates-IMI.eu) that includes funding grants. Catherine Smith reports a relationship with psort (psort.org.uk) that includes funding grants. Catherine Smith reports a relationship with GSK that includes funding grants. Catherine Smith reports a relationship with Novartis that includes funding grants. Catherine Smith reports a relationship with Pfizer that includes funding grants. Catherine Smith reports a relationship with Abbvie that includes funding grants. Catherine Smith reports a relationship with Janssen that includes funding grants. Catherine Smith reports a relationship with Regeneron that includes funding grants. Catherine Smith reports a relationship with Boehringer Ingelheim that includes funding grants. Richard Woolf reports a relationship with Cleveland Clinic London Ltd that includes employment. Richard Woolf reports a relationship with Abbvie that includes consulting or advisory, funding grants, speaking and lecture fees, and travel reimbursement. Richard Woolf reports a relationship with Eli Lilly that includes funding grants, speaking and lecture fees, and travel reimbursement. Richard Woolf reports a relationship with LEO Pharma that includes consulting or advisory, speaking and lecture fees, and travel reimbursement. Richard Woolf reports a relationship with Janssen that includes speaking and lecture fees and travel reimbursement. Richard Woolf reports a relationship with Novartis that includes funding grants and speaking and lecture fees. Richard Woolf reports a relationship with Sanofi that includes speaking and lecture fees and travel reimbursement. Richard Woolf reports a relationship with UCB Inc that includes speaking and lecture fees and travel reimbursement. Richard Woolf reports a relationship with Amgen that includes funding grants. Richard Woolf reports a relationship with Aristea Therapeutics Inc that includes funding grants. Richard Woolf reports a relationship with Boehringer Ingelheim that includes consulting or advisory and funding grants. Richard Woolf reports a relationship with Bristol-Myers Squibb that includes funding grants. Richard Woolf reports a relationship with Celgene that includes funding grants. Richard Woolf reports a relationship with Galderma that includes funding grants. Richard Woolf reports a relationship with Pfizer that includes funding grants. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

References

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