Treatment with bifonazole shampoo for seborrhea and seborrheic dermatitis: a randomized, double-blind study

Forty-four patients with seborrhea and seborrheic dermatitis of the scalp were treated with either bifonazole shampoo (22 patients) or the vehicle shampoo (22 patients) in a randomized, double-blind vehicle-controlled study. The patients were instructed to wash their scalps 3 times weekly for 6 weeks and were examined every 3 weeks. Responses were evaluated by clinicians using a clinical grading of scaling, erythema and overall improvement, and also by the patients, who assessed pruritus and overall improvement, using a scale of 0 to 3. The improvement following the bifonazole shampoo was found to be significantly greater than that achieved with the vehicle shampoo in regard to the clinical evaluation of scaling (p = 0.01) as well as patient evaluation of pruritus (p = 0.008) and overall improvement (p = 0.03). No major adverse side effects were recorded.