close window
Housecall Archives
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
close window
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffIn most cases, pityriasis rosea goes away on its own in four to six weeks. In some cases, your doctor may treat the rash. But pityriasis rosea treatment usually focuses on controlling itching.
Treating the rash
- Antiviral medications. The antiviral drugs acyclovir (Zovirax) and famciclovir (Famvir) may reduce the duration of pityriasis rosea by one to two weeks.
- Light therapy (phototherapy). This therapy may lessen the duration of pityriasis rosea, and can be done with ultraviolet B (UVB) light or sunlight. Talk to your doctor before using sunlight to treat your rash. UVB therapy is most often available at your doctor's office. Light phototherapy may cause lasting darkening in certain spots, even after the rash clears.
Relieving itching
If itching is a problem, your doctor may recommend the following to provide relief:
- Steroid creams or ointments. These creams will help ease itching and decrease redness.
- Oral antihistamines. These medications are available by prescription as cetirizine (Zyrtec) and fexofenadine (Allegra), and over-the-counter as diphenhydramine (Benadryl), chlorpheniramine (Chlor-Trimeton), clemastine (Tavist) and loratadine (Claritin).
References
- Pityriasis rosea. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/print/sec10/ch116/ch116d.html. Accessed Feb. 12, 2010.
- Goldstein AO, et al. Pityriasis rosea. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 29, 2010.
- Drago F, et al. Pityriasis rosea: An update with a critical appraisal of its possible herpesviral etiology. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. 2009;61:303.
- Chuh AA, et al. Interventions for pityriasis rosea. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2007;2:CD005068.
- Blauvelt A. Pityriasis rosea. In: Wolff K, et al. Fitzpatrick's Dermatology in General Medicine. 7th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2955172. Accessed Feb. 12, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on