Hydroxychloroquine treatment for Alopecia Universalis: Report of six cases

Recent reports indicate that hydroxychloroquine is a potential new treatment option for alopecia universalis; thus, we aimed to report on the safety and efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in 6 patients with refractory alopecia universalis that were treated with 400 mg/d continuously for ≥6 months. The treatment outcome was retrospectively evaluated using the Severity of Alopecia Tool (SALT), and at the end of 6 months, patients with a ≥50% decrease in the SALT score were considered as strong responders, a 5%-50% decrease as intermediate responders and a <5% decrease as non-responders. The present findings indicate that hydroxychloroquine is not an effective treatment since in 5 of the 6 patients it was discontinued at the end of 6 months due to lack of hair regrowth, whereas only a 6-year-old boy responded with a SALT score change of 8% after the 12th month.