Thalidomide in the Treatment of Behçet's Syndrome

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Abstract
To the Editor.— In the May 1979 Archives (115:636-637), Mascaro et al described the beneficial effect of thalidomide in the treatment of recurrent, necrotic, and giant mucocutaneous aphthae and aphthosis. They recorded excellent results in six patients while they were receiving a dosage of 100 mg/day. At about the time of this publication, we received a letter from A. C. McDougall, MD, MRCP (April 14, 1980) who had first heard of these results in the treatment of aphthous stomatitis after talking to a colleague in Sierra Leone about the proved (but unexplained) value of thalidomide in the immune complex syndrome of lepromatous leprosy.1,2 He suggested its use in the treatment of patients with the fully developed Behçet's syndrome in Turkey, and this prompted us to undertake a trial that now involves 22 patients. Eighteen of these patients had had the disease for ten years or more, with generally poor

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