[HN Gopher] FDA approves first systemic treatment for alopecia a...
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FDA approves first systemic treatment for alopecia areata
Author : birriel
Score : 69 points
Date : 2022-06-14 18:01 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.fda.gov)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.fda.gov)
| [deleted]
| meremortals wrote:
| This is great, but note that Alopecia Areata is different from
| male pattern baldness
| LewisVerstappen wrote:
| Yeah, but there is Finasteride for male pattern baldness which
| has fantastic results and is incredibly cheap (I got a 3 month
| supply for $12).
|
| A 10 year study published by the Tokyo Medical Clinic of
| finasteride carried out in Japan found that more than 99
| percent of men with male pattern baldness experienced no
| worsening of their hair loss during treatment [1]
|
| _Tons_ of additional clinical evidence showing that
| Finasteride works.
|
| [1] - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337105943_Long-
| term...
| skrtskrt wrote:
| The key being that it doesn't give any hair regrowth in the
| vast majority of people, so you have to get people taking it
| before they see much balding, which is an interesting
| challenge - why worry about something you can barely see or
| notice until it's already a problem?
|
| There are ad campaigns from male order providers such as Hims
| and Keeps around this, I wonder how effective they are.
|
| I take it, and it stopped the balding progression as far as I
| can tell, but I had to get an FUE hair transplant to get some
| lost hair back.
| maerF0x0 wrote:
| iirc there's a largely genetic component to it, so one
| could simply proactively take it if they carry the genes.
| But the side effects can be unfortunate (depression,
| libido) . Seems like topical is better than oral.
| meremortals wrote:
| Same. Not much, if any, regrowth
| mywittyname wrote:
| There's surgery to replace the lost hair (with hair moved
| from somewhere else, granted). It's certainly much more
| expensive than catching it early and treating it with minox
| or whatever, but it's within the reach of many people
| (<$10k).
| bbarnett wrote:
| I heard from a barber, that despite claims hairs from the
| back of the head are different follicles, and won't die
| off, this is all lies and marketing bs.
|
| So you need endless treatments, or else take testosterone
| blockers.
| rjh29 wrote:
| And you continue to recede so you will need follow-up
| treatments for that. If you're too far gone it's just not
| practical.
|
| It's a meme at this point, but for most people shaving
| their head is the right option.
| skrtskrt wrote:
| Well
|
| 1. even back of head hair thins eventually in balding
| people, but generally many decades later than the front
| or crown. By the time you're losing that hair, you're
| probably a lot older and care much less
|
| 2. taking finasteride indefinitely is supposed to
| drastically slow or stop further thinning or loss. Of
| course as in point 1, you're probably going to lose that
| battle eventually, but again you'll be much much older
| when the damage gets serious than you would have been
| otherwise
| LewisVerstappen wrote:
| > why worry about something you can barely see or notice
| until it's already a problem?
|
| So, you measure hair loss with the Norwood scale. You don't
| go from 100% hair to bald spots immediately.
|
| First, you'll see diffuse thinning where the thickness of
| your hair drops significantly.
|
| In the first stages of diffuse thinning, it won't be
| apparently to 99% of people that your hair is thinning but
| you'll immediately notice when you take a shower / apply
| shampoo (it's really obvious when your hair is wet).
|
| I'd say that's when most men realize they're losing their
| hair and that's when they should get on Finasteride.
| nsxwolf wrote:
| It may still be too late at that point. In my experience
| people who care about a man's hair (women, mostly) see
| hair loss as a binary thing - you either have a full head
| of hair, or you're balding. They don't see a guy in the
| earliest stages of hair loss and say "Oh, he's got a
| pretty decent Norwood score!", they say "he's bald".
|
| I've known two women that mentioned they'd rather date a
| man with a full head of hair who shaves his head than a
| balding man who shaves his head. I pressed it as far as
| asking "Well, what if they keep shaving it for life?"
| Same answer.
| skrtskrt wrote:
| It also depends on your head shape, I see a lot of men
| who are very good looking still with a fair amount
| visible recession, and they do quite well with their
| dating life.
|
| Personally I just felt like the relatively small amount
| of recession I had looked terrible on me because I
| already had a tall forehead to begin with, and I'm still
| in my 20s.
| bennysomething wrote:
| I've been on finastride for about 12 years. I'm never sure
| if it's working or not. Scared to stop!
|
| How well did the hair transplant work?
| skrtskrt wrote:
| Never stop!
|
| Hair transplant worked really well. Natural-looking
| hairline, which is the most important part. You'll see a
| lot of before and afters where the hairline looks like a
| Lego block hair piece was snapped into place - choose
| your doctor carefully here.
|
| You'd only notice if you're looking really closely, where
| you'll see that the hairs are quite a bit thicker, as
| they were transferred from the back of my head where
| everyone's hairs are thick, but I have especially thick
| hair in general.
| 01100011 wrote:
| One thing I think worth mentioning is that you should
| anticipate having to get multiple transplants if you
| expect to have much future hair loss. I just saw a guy a
| few weeks ago who had gone mostly bald on top but had an
| obvious row of hair across his hairline. It looked like
| he had gotten a transplant early on and then didn't
| continue as his hairloss progressed.
| rjh29 wrote:
| I took it way too late and it didn't really help. I shaved
| after and I'm really happy with that decision.
| agent008t wrote:
| Given the potential serious, life-changing adverse effects
| that persist even after stopping use - no thanks. Just cut
| your hair short / shave your head.
| rjh29 wrote:
| Maybe in the 70s/80s it was weird to be bald, but there are
| so many bald people now, it's like whatever. If you think
| I'm ugly or you're not into it fine, but there are plenty
| of women who are.
| the_only_law wrote:
| I think it depends, bigger and stockier guys seem to pull
| it off pretty well.
|
| I don't think I could pull it off though, at least right
| now. I have a taller, lankier statue and I worry I'd look
| like a skinhead.
|
| I've seen some smaller guys pull it off as well, but
| they're usually shorter. Most guys that go clean shaven
| with my kinda build end up looking goofy.
|
| On the flip side, long hair on bigger guys always looks
| odd to me.
| nsxwolf wrote:
| What ever happened to toupees? Young men seem to not even
| consider them as an option, even though the quality is
| better now than ever.
| failrate wrote:
| You never notice the good toupees.
| xchip wrote:
| - The most common side effects associated with Olumiant include:
|
| upper respiratory tract infections, headache, acne, high
| cholesterol (hyperlipidemia), increase of an enzyme called
| creatinine phosphokinase, urinary tract infection, liver enzyme
| elevations, inflammation of hair follicles (folliculitis),
| fatigue, lower respiratory tract infections, nausea, genital
| yeast infections (Candida infections), anemia, low number of
| certain types of white blood cells (neutropenia), abdominal pain,
| shingles (herpes zoster) and weight increase.
|
| - Olumiant comes with a boxed warning for serious infections,
| mortality, malignancy, major adverse cardiovascular events and
| thrombosis.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| I wish that illicit scheduled drugs, like the ones legal at the
| state level, just had the mere standardized _study_ for any
| side effect
|
| I hate that we are relying on anecdotes, and for recreational
| state level approval we have approved for _every_ use case and
| that this is the best we can do while debating the polar
| opposite style of federal prohibition
|
| Federal FDA approvals for _everything else_ are for a single
| use case or ailment at a time, and then we get all the side
| effects they found for an informed decision.
|
| States approvals have.... nothing. California industry just
| throws a random "maybe cancer" logo on it and calls it a day!
| user3939382 wrote:
| I feel like there's a Jada Smith joke in here somewhere... I
| never heard the term alopecia in my life until that "slap"
| incident and subsequently heard it 1000 times in reference to
| that. Hard not to see this headline and think of it.
| nailer wrote:
| Jada Pinkett Smith doesn't have alopecia, she has a facelift
| scar.
|
| https://youtu.be/DdPmmlvhpHk
| gnicholas wrote:
| That was speculation by a doctor who hasn't treated her.
| Timestamped link: https://youtu.be/DdPmmlvhpHk?t=694
| nailer wrote:
| That is correct, however the doctor is a hair loss
| specialist (and also has alopecia himself, which I feel may
| mean he is quite familiar with the condition).
| gnicholas wrote:
| Agree that he can weigh in on whether the scar is not
| alopecia, but less so on whether it is a scar (or from
| what). Also, he's not saying that the balding is from a
| scar, which was the impression I got when I first read
| your comment.
| [deleted]
| blobbers wrote:
| sabujp wrote:
| relevant https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/29/health/what-is-alopecia-
| areat...
| LosWochosWeek wrote:
| What a coincidence. I just got my first appearance of alopecia
| areata (only one spot, has been there for 10 weeks now --- hoping
| more dont pop up). It's quite annoying. Unfortunately, living in
| the EU I'll have to wait for you guys to figure it out first.
|
| PS: Anyone in the know who wants to give me the straight answer
| to whether or not I should be expecting more holes to pop up?
| jonlucc wrote:
| Yes, alopecia areata is generally a progressive disease. It
| might be worth discussing with your doctor early. I'm not too
| familiar with the European regulatory landscape, but I would
| guess any JAK inhibitor would need to prove efficacy in a
| European-listed trial of AA to seek approval there, and maybe
| you'd be a candidate.
| washedup wrote:
| Sample-size of 1 here: Yeah, I would prepare myself to see
| more. Mine came on kinda strong, both scalp and beard. Doing
| full shave now, still have eyebrows though!
| LosWochosWeek wrote:
| May I ask after much time had passed after you got your first
| hole before you got the other holes?
| SoftTalker wrote:
| I had it in my facial hair a few years ago. Two bare patches.
| My barber said it was likely stress-related (though I didn't
| feel stressed out at all). Then a year or two later it went
| away for no apparent reason. Nothing had really changed in my
| life that I could think would affect my stress levels. In other
| words, both its appearance and disappearance are a complete
| mystery.
|
| I also have almost no hair on my legs below my mid-calf, and I
| did when I was younger.
| voldacar wrote:
| This drug (baricitinib) seems to be approved for use in the EU
| (https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/EPAR/olumiant),
| but if EU pharmacies don't have it yet you might be able to
| order it on some online gray market source, which is pretty
| easy these days for a variety of substances.
| swayvil wrote:
| After perusing this thread, maybe the article too, head on over
| to reddit. Dimes to donuts a "hair loss remedy" advertisement
| pops up.
|
| Just a reminder, Google is watching.
| takk309 wrote:
| It will be interesting to hear how this drug impacts those with
| alopecia universalis, a sub type of alopecia areata. My sister
| has universalis from birth. I doubt she would want to do anything
| about it at this point, she is in her 40's.
| georgyo wrote:
| My sister, also now in her 40s, got alopecia universalis when
| she was 17. Truly tramatic to a teenager.
|
| The treatments at the time were mostly steroids, which did not
| help and caused all sorts of other problems.
|
| This is an immunosuppressant, so I am curious at the long term
| implications of this. The current list of side effects is
| pretty scary.
| takk309 wrote:
| Yeah, for sure. I would imagine for those that have learned
| to live with it, the side effects won't be worth the
| benefits.
| wing-_-nuts wrote:
| Given that alopecia is a kind of autoimmune disease it makes me
| wonder if this can also be used to treat other autoimmune
| diseases as well? I know they previously had some luck treating
| alopecia with biologics for example.
| nonameiguess wrote:
| The announcement says this same drug was originally approved
| for treating rheumatoid arthritis in 2018, so apparently yes.
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