This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Sign in
Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages without signing in

Precipitating factors

Authoring team

The most common precipitants are drug ingestion, alcohol consumption, and endogenous and exogenous steroid hormonal factors.

AIP, VP and HCP may be precipitated by:

  • alcohol
  • drugs, especially barbiturates, and sulphonamides; enzyme inducing anticonvulsants, for example carbamazepine, phenytoin, phenobarbitone, primodone, oral contraceptive pill; also, diphenylhydantoin, rifampicin, chlordiazepoxide, griseofulvin and ergots.
  • fluctuations in female sex hormones may also precipitate acute porphyrias
  • infections
  • starvation

Clinical features are similar to those seen in lead poisoning (abdominal pain, constipation or vomiting, peripheral neuropathy, confusion or psychosis, tachycardia, hypertension).

For a comprehensive list of contraindicated drugs consult the British National Formulary.

Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Create a free account

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.

The content herein is provided for informational purposes and does not replace the need to apply professional clinical judgement when diagnosing or treating any medical condition. A licensed medical practitioner should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions.

Connect

Copyright 2024 Oxbridge Solutions Limited, a subsidiary of OmniaMed Communications Limited. All rights reserved. Any distribution or duplication of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited. Oxbridge Solutions receives funding from advertising but maintains editorial independence.