Oral finasteride improved the quality of life of androgenetic alopecia patients

Abstract

Although androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is not a systemic disease, some patients suffer from anxiety about the progression of their condition. This study was conducted in order to ascertain whether treatment by oral finasteride can improve the quality of life (QOL) of these patients. Twenty-seven male AGA patients aged 19-76 years (average, 33.8) answered the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), WHO/QOL-26 and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) questionnaires before and after the administration of finasteride (1 mg/day) for 6 months. Patients assessed by physicians as "excellent" or "good" were defined as "high responders"; those assessed as "moderate" or "no change" were "low responders". The changes in QOL before and after the treatment were statistically analyzed, and the improved value of each QOL index of the high responders and low responders from baseline were compared. There was a statistical difference in the VAS (P < 0.0001) and DLQI (P < 0.01) indices before and after the administration of finasteride. No significant changes occurred in the WHO/QOL-26 and STAI indices. Comparison of the high responders (11 cases) and low responders (16 cases) revealed no statistical difference in the improvement of VAS and DLQI scores. Oral finasteride improves the QOL of these patients, and VAS and DLQI are useful for the evaluation of patients' QOL because of the high sensitivity of these tests. However, oral finasteride did not alleviate the patients' anxiety nor did its efficacy correlate with the level of reported anxiety.

Quality of life in women with female pattern hair loss and the impact of topical minoxidil treatment on quality of life in these patients

“…This value is higher than that in a previous study (12), which reported a value of 5.74±6.14 in male patients; however, the value is similar to the score for decubitus, while exceeding the scores for atopic dermatitis and psoriasis (18). Collective evidence has suggested that FPHL impairs the QoL of female patients to the same extent as certain lifelong skin disorders such as psoriasis.…”

“…Our study demonstrated that such treatment also improves the QoL of patients. Yamazaki et al (12) verified that DLQI and VAS are two highly reliable and sensitive indices for assessing the improvement of QoL in male patients with androgenic alopecia following oral finasteride treatment. We used their study as a reference when conducting an assessment of the QoL in female Chinese patients.…”

“…We recruited 125 FPHL patients to answer visual analog scale (VAS) (12) and dermatology life quality index (DLQI) questionnaires (13). Of these, 31 patients were recruited for the follow-up study in which they were treated with topical 2% minoxidil solution (1 ml applied twice daily) for 12 months and then completed the same surveys.…”

“…Subjective assessment (the patient’s perception of hair loss severity) of the 125 first-visit patients and a comparison between the assessment results prior to and following treatment were conducted using a VAS (8,12,14–16) in which the patient’s evaluation was scored from 0 (completely dissatisfied) to 100 (completely satisfied). The VAS is a simple tool for measuring the satisfaction of the patients regarding the state of their hair loss and the effect of the treatment.…”

A Dissolution Test for Finasteride in Immediate-Release Capsules

“…FNS capsules are widely marketed and are prepared for medical reasons (e.g., avoiding an excipient to which a patient is allergic or obtaining a dosage level that is not marketed). (Figure 1), a specific competitive inhibitor of steroid type-II 5α-reductase, an intracellular enzyme that converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and is widely used for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) (3), prostate cancer (4), and androgenetic alopecia (5)(6)(7)(8). A daily dose of 5 mg has been used for the treatment of BPH and prostate cancer, and a 1-mg dose has been used for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia.…”