Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
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
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 staffIf ringworm of the body covers a large area, is severe or doesn't respond to over-the-counter medicine, you may need a prescription-strength topical medication (lotion, cream or ointment) or an oral medication (pill, capsule or tablet). Many options are available, including:
Topical
- Butenafine (Mentax)
- Ciclopirox (Loprox)
- Econazole
- Miconazole (Monistat-Derm)
- Oxiconazole (Oxistat)
- Terbinafine (Lamisil)
Oral
- Itraconazole (Sporanox)
- Fluconazole (Diflucan)
- Ketoconazole (Nizoral)
- Terbinafine (Lamisil)
Side effects from oral medications include gastrointestinal upset, rash and abnormal liver functioning. Taking other medications, such as antacid therapies for ulcer disease or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), may interfere with the absorption of these drugs taken for ringworm. Oral medications for ringworm may alter the effectiveness of warfarin, an anticoagulant drug that decreases the clotting ability of your blood.
- Goldstein AO, et al. Dermatophyte (tinea) infections. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Sept. 2, 2008.
- Habif, TP. Superficial fungal infections. In: Clinical Dermatology: A Color Guide to Diagnosis and Therapy. 4th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby Inc.; 2004. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/104355536-2/742469442/1195/81.html?printing=true. Accessed Sept. 2, 2008.
- Ringworm and animals. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/diseases/ringworm.htm. Accessed Sept. 2, 2008.
- Andrews MD, et al. Common tinea infections in children. American Family Physician. 2008;77(10):1415-1420.
- Drugs@FDA. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/drugsatfda/index.cfm. Accessed Sept. 3, 2008.
- Gupta AK, et al. Tinea corporis, tinea cruris, tinea nigra, and piedra. Dermatologic Clinics. 2003;21(3):395-400.
