Corticosteroid therapy is treatment with natural or synthetic hormones related to cortisol, used to suppress inflammation and dampen immune activity across a wide range of conditions, from asthma and arthritis to autoimmune disease and the prevention of transplant organ rejection. Chemist Edward Kendall and physician Philip Hench, working at the Mayo Clinic, isolated and characterized cortisone and demonstrated its dramatic effect on rheumatoid arthritis in the late 1940s, work recognized with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1950, and synthetic derivatives such as prednisone followed in the 1950s, offering more potent and longer-lasting anti-inflammatory effects. Because corticosteroids act on the immune system broadly rather than on a single disease process, they are used across nearly every field of medicine, though prolonged use carries recognized side effects that limit how long high doses are typically maintained.
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Corticosteroid therapy (topical or intralesional) is a standard treatment for alopecia areata.
Topical corticosteroid therapy is standard first-line treatment for contact dermatitis.
Topical corticosteroid therapy is standard first-line treatment for eczema flares.
Low-dose corticosteroid therapy is the standard first-line treatment for polymyalgia rheumatica.
Topical corticosteroid therapy is a standard treatment for seborrheic dermatitis flares.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Cortisone
Wikimedia FoundationHistory section, Hench cortisone trial sentenceQuote, History section, Hench cortisone trial sentence
In 1949, Philip S. Hench and colleagues discovered that large doses of injected cortisone were effective in the treatment of patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis.
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