Safety of low‐dose oral minoxidil treatment for hair loss. A systematic review and pooled‐analysis of individual patient data
September 2020
in “Dermatologic Therapy”
TLDR Low-dose oral minoxidil is a safe treatment for hair loss, with the main side effect being excessive hair growth. Other side effects like foot swelling, low blood pressure when standing, and heart rate changes are rare.
In 2020, a systematic review and pooled-analysis was conducted on 14 studies involving 442 patients to assess the safety of low-dose oral minoxidil treatment for hair loss. The review found that low-dose oral minoxidil was a safe and well-tolerated treatment, with the main adverse effect being hypertrichosis (excessive hair growth) in 24% of patients. Other adverse effects such as pedal edema (swelling in the feet), postural hypotension (low blood pressure when standing up), and heart rate alterations were rare, occurring in 2%, 1.1%, and 1.3% of patients respectively. Four studies reported a clinical response in 70 - 100% of patients with androgenetic alopecia. However, the review noted that the studies were mostly observational, retrospective, and non-comparative, which could introduce biases.
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