This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Sophie Worobec, MD; Alleine LaChine, RN
University of Illinois at the Medical Center Chicago

JAMA. 1984;251(18):2348.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

It has been brought to our attention that the oral use of para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) in daily doses up to 1,000 mg has been promoted to prevent phototoxic reactions. This concerns us for two reasons. First, although it has been shown that PABA is an effective sunscreen when used topically, there is no evidence that systemic PABA has any sunscreening properties.¹ Second, and more important for the consumer, there is considerable evidence that PABA taken orally can be toxic.²

In the 1940s, PABA was administered orally in doses of 48 g/day to treat typhus fever. This was associated with lowering of the WBC count to below 4,000 cu mm in 30% of the patients. This count started to rise within three days after PABA therapy was discontinued.^3,4 Oral PABA was also used as an experimental treatment for discoid lupus erythematosus and systemic lupus erythematosus. . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?