Steroids Blog

In a clinical study made by Dr. Kiumars Pirkalani of Mehr Medical Group in Tehran, Iran, it was found out that steroid-based therapy can induce hair growth in more than 90% of patients with alopecia universalis. The clinical evaluation starts with methotrexate and triamcinolone and then progresses through some of the same drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

According to Dr. Pirkalani, systemic corticosteroids can raise the patients’ response rate to about 70%, but short- and long-term side effects and frequent relapse after discontinuation make that therapy problematic.

From medpage today:

Methotrexate-based, steroid-sparing therapy has induced hair growth in more than 90% of patients with alopecia universalis, according to an ongoing clinical evaluation.

Based on evidence implicating autoimmunity in the hair loss, the therapy begins with methotrexate and triamcinolone and then progresses through some of the same drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, Kiumars Pirkalani, M.D., of Mehr Medical Group in Tehran, Iran, said here at the International Congress of Dermatology.

“We have shown that, although this seems to involve many drugs, it will be potentially curative with short courses of therapy with the fewest side effects, if used intelligently,” said Dr. Pirkalani.

Conventional therapies for alopecia areata and its variants have proven unsatisfactory. Local irritants, such as diphencyprone and dithranol, induce hair growth in no more than half of patients and many of them cannot tolerate the therapies, said Dr. Pirkalani.

Combining triamcinolone with other drugs has typically led to higher response rates than those observed with triamcinolone monotherapy.

Doctor Pirkalani pointed out that conventional therapies for alopecia areata and its variants have proven unsatisfactory. Local irritants, such as diphencyprone induce hair growth in no more than half of patients and many of them cannot tolerate the therapies.

At the end of the study, 102 or 94% out of 109 patients have responded to weekly triamcinolone and methotrexate.