Alopecias Due to Drugs and Other Skin and Systemic Disorders

January 2015 in “ Current problems in dermatology ”

Daniela Guzmán-Sánchez, Daniel Asz-Sigall

Studysummary This chapter reviews common drug-related and systemic disorder-induced alopecias, focusing on their epidemiology, causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment, but reports no new findings. Our plain-language summary of this paper — not a Tressless recommendation.

The chapter from "Alopecias - Practical Evaluation and Management" outlines various drug-induced and systemic causes of alopecia. It explains that telogen effluvium (TE) affects 7% of females in Canada and is often caused by stress, infections, and drugs, with hair loss typically starting 3-4 months post-trigger. Chronic TE, which primarily affects middle-aged women, has less clear causes. Anagen effluvium, usually a result of chemotherapy, is reversible with hair regrowth occurring within 3 months after cessation of treatment. The text also discusses hair loss due to cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, bacterial infections like folliculitis and syphilis, viral infections such as varicella-zoster, and fungal infections like tinea capitis, which can lead to scarring alopecia if untreated. Additionally, the document describes hair loss conditions such as favus, pediculosis capitis, diffuse alopecia in HIV-1 patients, lupus erythematosus, and sarcoidosis, emphasizing the need for accurate diagnosis to inform treatment strategies.

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