Usefulness of Individualised Homoeopathic Medicines in the Treatment of Alopecia Areata- Single-Arm Clinical Study

Abstract

Alopecia areata (A.A) is an autoimmune disease affecting genetically susceptible people, characterised by hair loss in sharply defined skin areas. It is the most prevalent autoimmune disorder and the second most common hair loss disorder after androgenetic Alopecia. The lifetime incidence of A.A. is approximately 2% worldwide. Alopecia areata is still a puzzle to dermatologists due to its unpredictable response to medications. The recurrence of complaints and variation in clinical presentations like alopecia totalis, alopecia universalis, and ophiasis are potentially can cause significant cosmetological damage in adolescents and young individuals. In conventional medicine, there is no preventative therapy or cure, and it increased the global burden of disease. In contrast, the homoeopathy system of medicine offers promising results in treating alopecia areata with individualised homoeopathic medicines.  The main objective of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of Individualized Homoeopathic medicines in the treatment of Alopecia areata. A prospective, non-randomised, single-arm clinical study on alopecia areata was conducted on participants recruited from the OPD of the Department of Materia Medica, Govt. Homoeopathic Medical College, Calicut, Kerala, India. The participants who fulfilled various inclusion and exclusion criteria were recruited for the study. The usefulness of individualized homoeopathic medicines was evaluated by reduction in the bald patch size after the treatment using appropriate statistical tests. Among 30 participants, twenty-five completed the study and five participants dropped out and sample of n=25 was analysed. Among the analysed participants, most of the cases were cured with individualised homoeopathic remedies by reduction in the sizes of bald patches after treatment. There was a statistically significant reduction in the median size of the bald patches (6.00(3.50,17.65) vs 0.00(0.00,4.25), Z=-4.108, P< 0.001) after treatment in comparison to the size of the bald patches at baseline when analysed by using Wilcoxon Signed Rank test. The results showed the positive role and usefulness of individualised homoeopathic medicines in the treatment of alopecia areata. Randomised controlled trials are further warranted.