OA01.42. Evaluation of Therapeutic Efficacy of Ayurvedic Formulations in Patients with Alopecia areata

PURPOSE: Alopecia aerata is one among the most prevalent human autoimmune diseases, leading to disfiguring hair loss by the collapse of immune privilege in the hair follicle and subsequent autoimmune attack. Generally, hair loss in patches signifies alopecia areata. It typically presents a gradual or sudden loss of hair in head, eyebrows, eyelashes, nasal, ear and other areas of the body causing patches to appear. Alopecia areata or hair loss occurs in one in 1,000 people. Autoimmune-associated alopecia areata has no age boundaries and can affect even children, men and women equally. If left untreated, or if the disease does not respond to treatment, complete baldness can result in the affected area. The two major forms of Alopecia are scarring and non scarring. Highlighting the significance, a study was carried out to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of Ayurvedic formulations in patients with Alopecia Areata. METHOD: Fifteen alopecia areata patients of either sex with varying degrees of hair loss were randomly selected for the clinical trial and were treated with Indralupta Bhasma, Malathyadi Tailam and Guduchi tablet for a period of 3-5 months. Subsequently, most of them were observed bi monthly up to a 5 months period. RESULT: Findings revealed that 8 of the15 patients with patchy progressive hair loss stabilised and showed no additional hair loss. After 3-5 months of treatment hair growth in these patients were partial or full. Of the other 7 patients with stable patchy total hair loss, four had some limited growth, two patients displayed complete growth of eyebrows and eyelashes, but had poor hair growth on scalp while one patient did not show any response. CONCLUSION: The study vividly indicated the efficacy of Ayurvedic formulations in patients with Alopecia Areata. The trial medicines too proved to be effective minimizing the patchy hair loss.