{"id":582143,"date":"2026-04-13T19:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/582143\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T19:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:00:10","slug":"panic-as-drug-used-by-millions-in-the-uk-leaves-woman-with-blisters-and-scarring-on-face-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/582143\/","title":{"rendered":"Panic as drug used by millions in the UK leaves woman with blisters and scarring on face | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Woman\u2019s<\/p>\n

The woman suffered an extreme reaction (Image: Jam Press)<\/p>\n

A woman was left with severe blisters and scarring on her face, neck and torso after being prescribed a common drug. The 42-year-old who has not been named, suffered the rare reaction after being given lamotrigine by a doctor to treat depression.<\/p>\n

The drug, often used to treat conditions such as epilepsy and bipolar disorder<\/a>, is issued millions of times a year in the UK with as many as two million people thought to take it in the United States<\/a>. The woman first developed symptoms around three weeks after taking the drug, before progressively getting worse. She was rushed to hospital in S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil<\/a> where she was admitted to intensive care after her face was almost entirely covered in painful blisters and burn-like markings.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: BBC’s Louise Minchin told terrifying words by doctor after health battle <\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Wes Streeting slammed for NHS strike ‘spiral’ – ‘it’s patients who suffer’ <\/a><\/p>\n

\"Woman\u2019s<\/p>\n

The woman eventually made an ‘excellent’ recovery (Image: Jam Press)<\/p>\n

On her first day in hospital, her face was covered in painful, open lesions. Within 24 hours, her skin had turned a deep purple and begun to peel away.<\/p>\n

By the fourth day, it had blackened entirely, with severe, burn-like damage concentrated around her mouth.<\/p>\n

In the early stages of treatment, her condition appeared to worsen as layers of skin continued to break down.<\/p>\n

Doctors administered multiple antibiotics and used an antibacterial biomaterial to help repair the damaged tissue.<\/p>\n

After four days, there were the first signs of progress, with her condition slowly beginning to stabilise under close monitoring.<\/p>\n

A month later, her face had started to heal \u2014 though significant scarring remained.<\/p>\n

She spent a total of 66 days in hospital as her skin gradually recovered.<\/p>\n

At a follow-up six months after discharge, doctors described the healing of the affected areas as \u201cexcellent\u201d.<\/p>\n

The NHS<\/a> website lists a rash as a common side effect of lamotrigine alongside a range of other symptoms.<\/p>\n

In extreme cases, a possible serious side effect of lamotrigine can include skin reaction, such as a round, slightly raised rash (erythema multiforme), painful blisters (Stevens-Johnson syndrome), or peeling skin.<\/p>\n

In 2016, a man was diagnosed with Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS), a form of toxic epidermal necrolysis which causes the skin to peel off the body, after taking the drug lamotrigine.<\/p>\n

Christopher Wooll, who was 21 at the time, told how he had to battle a series of complications that at one point stopped him breathing.<\/p>\n

He explained how he developed flu-like symptoms which progressed into something worse.<\/p>\n

He said: “I did not really think anything of it at first, but the next day at work my face and eyes began to swell up.<\/p>\n

“When I got in the car to go home I had blood blisters in my mouth and on my lips. It was pretty scary.”<\/p>\n

The next day the family went to Warwick’s A and E department twice, before Mr Wooll was admitted in a deteriorating state.<\/p>\n

He was losing his vision and the blisters and burns across his body were spreading, and he was put in the intensive care unit.<\/p>\n

Mr Wooll suffered blistering on his entire body with skin peeling off, multiple organ failure, corneal defects, two episodes of sepsis, low blood pressure, and he lost a total of 25 kgs.<\/p>\n

He was later released from hospital but was told that his recovery would take months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The woman suffered an extreme reaction (Image: Jam Press) A woman was left with severe blisters and scarring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[28711,245080,2605,97,255128,243,100418,195346],"class_list":{"0":"post-582143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-antidepressants","9":"tag-drug-side-effects","10":"tag-drugs","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-lamotrigine","13":"tag-medication","14":"tag-skin-reactions","15":"tag-stevens-johnson-syndrome"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}