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Review
. 2020 Jul-Aug;12(4):147-155.
doi: 10.4103/ijt.ijt_19_20. Epub 2020 Sep 19.

Effect of Oral Minoxidil for Alopecia: Systematic Review

Israel Junior Borges do Nascimento  1   2 , Matthew Harries  3   4 , Vanessa Barreto Rocha  5 , Jacqueline Y Thompson  6 , Chun Hoong Wong  7 , Hamed Kord Varkaneh  8 , Nathália Sernizon Guimarães  9 , Alair Junior Rocha Arantes  1 , Milena Soriano Marcolino  1
Affiliations
Review

Effect of Oral Minoxidil for Alopecia: Systematic Review

Israel Junior Borges do Nascimento et al. Int J Trichology. 2020 Jul-Aug.

Abstract

Patients with major presentations of alopecia experience physically harmful effects and psychological comorbidities, such as depression and anxiety. Oral minoxidil (OM) has been suggested by dermatologists as a potential remedy; however, its effectiveness remains unclear. This systematic review aims to collate published studies and to analyze the effect of OM among patients diagnosed with any type of alopecia. For this systematic review, Medline/PubMed, Cochrane Central, EMBASE, Web of Sciences, and Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Information System were searched for relevant studies from inception to September 21, 2019. Of 1960 studies retrieved in several electronic databases and three additional records identified though reference list from potentially eligible studies, nine studies (one randomized controlled trial and eight nonrandomized controlled trials) met the requirements and were used in our analysis. Although we found positive effects in favor of OM, this should be interpreted cautiously due to very low quality of the evidence of outcomes in the selected studies. Definitive conclusions are not possible without high-quality trials. This review has highlighted the absence of high-quality randomized controlled trials evaluating OM in the treatment of various types of alopecia. Given the mild adverse events of OM, future studies should also analyze doses and duration to maximize efficacy and decrease side effects.

Keywords: Alopecia; evidence-based medicine; minoxidil; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses flow diagram of records investigating effect of oral minoxidil in alopecia
Figure 2
Figure 2
Risk of bias summary: Review authors' judgments about each risk of bias item for the included study
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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