<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

I coudn't find the original reference that decribed the time it
takes on a GF diet before DH symptoms dissappear but found a more recent
article that addresses these points pretty well:

Hall, R.P. (no relation) (1987) The pathogenisis of dermatitis
herpetiformis: Recent advances. Journal of the American Academy of
Dermatology, Volume 16, number 6, Pages 1129-1144.

I have also come accross an interesting article by a Consultant
Dermatologist (Dr Lionel Fry) entitled "Recent Studies in DH", which is the
text of a talk he gave at the 1984 AGM in London. I
have included some relavent sections below:

..we have looked at the records of 78 patients who have been attending our
special DH clinic. The length of follow-up of these patients has ranged
from 3 to 14 years (mean 7.4). All patients were offered a GF diet as part
of their treatment. However, only 42 patients have taken the diet......in
only 23 patients was the diet absolutely strict, in another 17 ther had
been very occasional, but unintensional gluten intake, and in 2 there had
been occassional but intentional intake. When these three groups of
patients are compared it has been found that of the 23 patients taking a
strict diet, 22 (96%) were able to stop drugs compared to 8 (47%) of 17
patients who had occassional but unintensional gluten (the 2
occassional but intensional gluten eaters could not stop drugs)........One
of the most significant points to have emerged from our study is the time
it takes with a gluten free diet before patients may reduce the dose of
their drugs to control the rash, and eventually cease to need drugs. The
mean time before there was a reduction in the dose of dapsone was 4-30
months (mean 8), and 6-108 months (mean 29 ) before the drugs wre no longer
required. These times were dependent on the strictness of the diet. ....In
the past many doctors have been unaware that it has taken so long before
the drugs could be reduced or stopped and this led to a situation where it
was thought that the rash was not due to gluten.......Twelve of our
pateints agreed to take gluten again to see if their rash returned. These
12 patients had been on a gluten free diet for periods ranging from 3-12
years (mean 7.5). In 11 of the 12 patients the rash recurred in times
ranging from 2-36 weeks (mean 12). It could be argued that in the patient
whose rash did not recur, he had undergone spontaneous remission........
(sections of the text of a talk by Dr. Lionel Fry, Consultant
Dermatologist,  St Mary's Hospital, London W2).

Hope this info helps!
Roy
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Roy A. Hall, PhD
Senior Research Officer
Molecular Virology
Dept. of Microbiology,
University of Queensland
Brisbane. 4072. QLD
Australia
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