1. Adverse events in the included studies.

Study ID	Drug and dose	Infection /Low WCC	Organ impairment	Cardiovascular	Other	Total adverse events	Death
Beissert 2007	Oral methylprednisolone 0.5 mg/kg/day plus azathioprine 2 mg/kg/day (n = 38)	1	7 (1 hyperglycaemia 6 liver)	0	3	11 (grade 3/4)	2
	Oral methylprednisolone 0.5 mg/kg/day plus mycophenolate mofetil 2000 mg twice/day (n = 35)	4	6 (5 hyperglycaemia 1 liver)	0	3	13 (grade 3/4)	0
Burton 1978	Prednisone 30 to 80 mg/kg/day (n = 13)	1	1	3		5	4
	Azathioprine 2.5 mg/kg + prednisone 30 to 80 mg/kg/day (n = 12)	2		3		5	3
Dreno 1993	Prednisolone (average) 1.16 mg/kg/day (n = 29)		1	1	1	3	0
	Methylprednisolone (average) 1.17 mg/kg/day (n = 28)	1	1	2	1	5	0
Fivenson 1994	Prednisone 40 to 80 mg/kg/day (n = 6)	2	3	2	1	8	1
	Tetracycline 500mg 4x/day + nicotinamide (n = 14)	1	1		2	4	0
Guillaume 1993	Prednisolone 1 mg/kg/day (n = 31)					10	5
	Prednisolone 1 mg/kg/day + azathioprine 100 to 150 mg/day (n = 36)					15	6
	Prednisolone 1 mg/kg/day + plasma exchange (n = 31)					6	3
Joly 2002	Moderate disease: topical steroids (n = 77) Prednisone 0.5 mg/kg/day (n = 76)	11 16	5 14	15 16		31 46	23 23
	Extensive disease: topical steroids (n = 93) Prednisone 1 mg/kg (n=95)	8 22	6 23	16 20		30 65	22 39 P = 0.02
Joly 2009	Mild regimen topical steroids (n = 159)	27	18 (DM)	21	41% (skin)	194 (grade 3/4)	60
	Standard regimen topical steroids (n = 150)	32	34 (DM)	35	52% (skin)	227 (grade 3/4)	58
Liu 2006	Jingui Shenqi Pill (JSP) 1# bid plus prednisone 0.5 to 1.0 mg/kg/day (n = 15)					not mentioned	not mentioned
	Prednisone alone 0.5 to 1.0 mg/kg/day (n = 15)					not mentioned	not mentioned
Morel 1984	Prednisolone 0.75 mg/kg/day (n = 26)	1	2			3	2
	Prednisolone 1.25 mg/kg/day (n = 26)	1	1	1	2	5	3
Roujeau 1984	Prednisolone 0.3 mg/kg/day (n = 17)		7			7	0
	Plasma exchange + prednisolone 0.3 mg/kg/day (n = 24)	10	7	7		7	0