Treatment of Alopecia Areata in Pre-Adolescent Children with Oral Tofacitinib: A Retrospective Study

    October 2020 in “ Pediatric Dermatology ”
    Rebekka Jerjen, Nekma Meah, Lara Trindade de Carvalho, Dmitri Wall, Samantha Eisman, Rodney Sinclair
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    TLDR Oral tofacitinib may effectively treat hair loss in children with alopecia areata.
    In a retrospective study at Sinclair Dermatology in Melbourne, Australia, 14 pre-adolescent children aged 7 to 11 with alopecia areata were treated with oral tofacitinib. After an average of 9 months, 9 patients showed clinically significant improvement in their Severity of Alopecia Tool (SALT) scores, with 3 achieving complete remission and 7 showing over 50% improvement. The median SALT score improvement was 67.7%. While the results suggest that tofacitinib could be an effective treatment for AA in pre-adolescents, the study's limitations, such as its small sample size, retrospective nature, lack of a control group, potential referral bias, and the concomitant use of other medications like oral minoxidil, indicate that further research is necessary to confirm these findings.
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