side effects of amiodarone

I'm a 33year old woman.  I have been taking the medication amiodarone for about six months, to treat heart arrythmias.  I have noticed that since the weather has warmed up and I am outside more, I seem to be having not so good reactions to the sun.  Firstly, even with 50spf sunscreen applied several times I am still getting very burnt.  People are always saying- were you out in the sun too long, even if its only been 10 minutes.

The other problem is my hands.  When I started going outside more, I began to notice tingling in my hands that lasted several days, then horrible itching, then bumps, now I still have the itching but my hands despite constant applications of sunscreen and moisturizers are very dry, where the bumps were they almost seem calloused.  I have 2 young children that like to play outside alot, and a swimming pool.

Do you have any ideas of what I can do to protect myself, and have you ever heard of amiodarone causing these types of problems?  Is this something I should address to my doctor?

Also, do you have any idea what may be going on with my hands, and what I can do for them?

Thankyou so much

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

I have no personal experience with this medication, but amiodarone has a high reported incidence of photosensitivity.  You ought to ask your cardiologist if there are any alternative drugs, since protection from all forms of ultraviolet light is hard.  Most sunscreens only cover UVB, the burn rays, and even UVA sunscreens provide only partial coverage of the rest of the UV spectrum.

Best.

Dr. Rockoff