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An arthritis drug of all things was recently found in a study to restore up to 100% of hair in patients with severe alopecia.
Around 2% of the world population live with alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder where the human immune system mistakes hair follicles for harmful invaders. The condition can be reversed but it’s difficult to prevent this autoimmune response.
In an industry-funded study, scientists tested low-dosage and high-dosage of the anti-inflammatory and arthritis drug upadacitinib against placebo in a randomized clinical trial to see if it could be a potential treatment for alopecia.
1,399 participants took part in total, aged between 12 and 64 and including 118 adolescents, who were missing at least 50% of their scalp hair at the time of the study’s initiation. The parallel phase 3 trials ran for 24 weeks.
Results occurred early in the study, with those on the low and high doses showing notable reductions in hair loss compared with placebo by week 8.
At trial’s end, 44% of participants taking 15 milligrams of upadacitinib had improved their scalp and eyebrow hair coverage to 80%. 55% of those taking 30 milligrams achieved the same, suggesting the higher dose was more efficacious.
A small number of patients suffered serious side effects, including breast cancer in one patient who had concerning mammogram results before the beginning of the trial. 2 other serious side effects that reasonably could be believed to have been caused or aggravated by the drug were reported, though both were in individuals that could be fairly easily described as at very high risk for health complications.
No deaths were reported and none of side effects emerged as novel. In contrast, many scored higher on quality of life measurements by study’s end, including for things like depression. Between 13% and 22.5% of participants on upadacitinib got all their scalp hair back, depending on the dosage.
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“In a disease often associated with sizable psychosocial and emotional burden, translation of clinical responses (hair regrowth) into meaningful patient-reported improvements becomes imperative to deem a treatment to be efficacious,” the authors wrote.
Upadacitinib was chosen for the trial because of some similarities with existing alopecia medications, however it must also be stipulated that the trial was funded by a company that produces upadacitinib, and even included that company’s employees.
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The study passed independent peer-review, but more research without this shadow of conflicts of interest should certainly be conducted before upadacitinib can became a bonafide alopecia treatment.
With that in mind, however, there are dozens of people who, having previously felt the stigma or loss of confidence from unmitigated hair loss, suddenly have their hair back, and that’s a very nice thing to consider.
SHARE This Encouraging Study Result With Your Friends, Maybe Those Who Suffer From Alopecia…
