What are the symptoms of Lupus or Systemic Lupus Erythematosus?

In some people, lupus causes only mild illness, but in others it leads to potentially deadly complications. Symptoms tend to come and go. Periods of intensified symptoms are called flares and periods of decreased symptoms are called remissions. Flares can be triggered by many different factors, including sun exposure, infection, medication and possibly pregnancy, but often they occur for no apparent reason.

Lupus has the potential to affect many different parts of the body, so it can cause a wide range of symptoms including:

• Malaise (a general sick feeling)

• Fever

• Loss of appetite

• Weight loss

• Muscle pain, with pain and swelling of the joints

• A butterfly-shaped rash on the cheeks and bridge of the nose, called a malar rash

• Skin photosensitivity (a more widespread rash and flu-like symptoms after exposure to sunlight)

• Hair loss

• In about 20% of patients, a discoid rash, which appears as firm, round red plaques with raised borders

• Painful ulcers in the mouth, nose and genital areas

Other possible symptoms of lupus include:

• Neurological symptoms (headaches, seizures, trouble thinking or stroke)

• Psychiatric symptoms, including psychosis, in which hallucinations occur

• Heart problems (abnormal heart rhythms, heart failure, inflammation of the heart muscle or lining)

• Lung symptoms, especially pleurisy, which causes painful breathing

• Loss of vision

• Pain or swelling in an extremity due to thrombosis (abnormal blood clots)

Some people develop a form of lupus that involves only the skin, called cutaneous lupus or discoid lupus erythematosus. Another form of lupus follows exposure to certain drugs (drug-induced lupus) incl...