Posted on 03/18/2023 6:50:52 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
For patients with recalcitrant alopecia areata totalis or universalis, methotrexate combined with prednisone yields complete hair regrowth in about 31 percent of patients, according to a study.
Pascal Joly, M.D., Ph.D. and colleagues examined the efficacy and tolerance of methotrexate alone or combined with low-dose prednisone in 89 patients with chronic and recalcitrant alopecia areata totalis or universalis in a randomized clinical trial. Patients were randomly assigned to methotrexate or placebo for six months; those with more than 25 percent hair regrowth at six months continued their treatment to 12 months, while those with less than 25 percent hair regrowth were re-randomly assigned to methotrexate plus prednisone or methotrexate plus placebo of prednisone.
The researchers found that complete or almost complete hair regrowth occurred at month 12 in one and zero patients who received methotrexate alone or placebo, respectively and in 20.0 percent of 35 patients who received methotrexate (for six or 12 months) plus prednisone, including 31.2 percent of 16 patients who received methotrexate for 12 months plus prednisone for six months. Compared with nonresponders, patients who achieved a complete response had a greater improvement in quality of life.
"The combination of methotrexate and low-dose prednisone can be considered as a therapeutic option in patients with recalcitrant types of alopecia areata totalis or universalis, even after the failure of previous systemic treatment," the authors write.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
The condition must be a major source of inflammation, which is unfortunate.
Very interesting. My brother had an illness that caused him to need this drug combination, and once he no longer needed the meds, he ended up with alopecia for a short time.
He had bald patches in his beard for a little over a year afterwards, and his hair is thinner overall, though it was never really thick.
Correlation is not causation, but that is an interesting little coincidence.
“methotrexate”
Meth heads.
I’d rather be bald as a pickle than take either drug.
Was on methotrexate and later prednisone for my rheumatoid arthritis.
Methotrexate gave me terrible mouth ulcers and prednisone made my bones weak and gained ungodly amount of weight.(actually got stretch marks)plus the “moon face”.
Being bald would be a pleasure compared to the pain.
Cue Will Smith!
DHEA supplements do the same thing, and they are natural.
Go look up the side effects of methotrexate. You’re better off bald.
Yep, it’s a rugged drug. I was on so etching similar, mercaptopurine or 6mp for short. Had constant boils, lung problems bad enough to end up in er, mouth sores, and some other things too- was not a pleasant drug to be on. The prednisone wasn’t too bad for me- had to be on it for long periods a few times, but others do suffer from just that drug too.
Methotrexate and 6mp are both chemo drugs if I recall right.
They are. Who would take chemo to get some hair growth. Seems like a bad plan.
Methotrexate is definitely a chemo drug, not sure about prednisone.
Method was so potent I had to have blood tests every week before I got the shot.
Hated being stuck drawing blood, hating waiting for the results and hated getting the shot.
Miserable situation.
I had to come off it- the side effects made life pretty miserable, and it didn’t help-
Same here. I could live with arthritis.
Both meds suck big time. .. Wouldn’t recommend them just to try to grow hair.
Won’t Whopeed Goldberg be delighted!
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