Treatment of Alopecia Areata with Topical Corticosteroid: Prospective Double-Blind Randomized Study in Children
January 2003
Studysummary In this study, no significant difference was found between the efficacy of betamethasone dipropionate cream and placebo in treating alopecia areata in children, regardless of atopic status. Our plain-language summary of this paper — not a Tressless recommendation.
This study evaluated the efficacy of 0.05% betamethasone dipropionate cream in treating alopecia areata in children and examined the influence of atopy on therapeutic response. Conducted as a prospective double-blind controlled trial, it involved 35 children up to 12 years old. After six months, 85.7% of the children showed a positive response, with no significant difference between the betamethasone and placebo groups (p=0.47). Among the 29 atopic children, 89.6% responded positively, but no statistically significant correlation was found between therapeutic response and atopic condition (p=0.19). The study concluded that there was no difference in therapeutic responses between the groups, and atopy did not influence treatment outcomes.
