Efficacy Comparison of Monotherapies and Combination Therapies for Androgenetic Alopecia: A Bayesian Network Meta-Analysis

December 2021 in “ Dermatologic Therapy ”

Dongyu Chen, Xiao-Yu Yang, Xinghua Liu, Yuqing He, Wenlong Fan, Hongxin Wang, Yong-Huang Lin

androgenetic alopecia Bayesian network meta-analysis combination therapies topical treatments systemic treatments adjunctive therapeutics hair density hair diameter monotherapies placebo AGA

TLDR Combination therapies are more effective for treating androgenetic alopecia than single treatments.

This review article conducted a Bayesian network meta-analysis to compare the efficacy of various treatments for androgenetic alopecia (AGA), involving 49 randomized controlled trials with 3133 patients. The study found that combination therapies, particularly those involving topical/systemic treatments with adjunctive therapeutics, showed the highest efficacy in improving hair density and diameter (MD: 40.11; 95% CrI 25.65–54.59). Topical combined with systemic medical therapeutics also demonstrated significant effectiveness (MD: 36.41; 95% CrI 17.54–55.24). Monotherapies, such as topical and systemic medical therapeutics, were less effective but still showed improvement compared to placebo. The study suggests that combination therapies hold significant promise for treating AGA, although further research is needed to understand their mechanisms.

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