Efficacy of non-surgical treatments for androgenetic alopecia in men and women: a systematic review with network meta-analyses, and an assessment of evidence quality

Various treatments exist for androgenetic alopecia (AGA); we determined the relative efficacies of non-surgical AGA monotherapies separately for men and women.

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were systematically searched in PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus and clinicaltrials.gov. Separate networks were used for men and women; for each network, a Bayesian network meta-analysis (NMA) of mean change in hair count from baseline (in units of hairs per square centimeter) was performed using a random effects model.

The networks for male and female AGA included 30 and 10 RCTs, respectively. We identified the following treatments for male AGA in decreasing rank of efficacy: platelet-rich plasma (PRP), low-level laser therapy (LLLT), 0.5 mg dutasteride, 1 mg finasteride, 5% minoxidil, 2% minoxidil, and bimatoprost. For female AGA the following were identified in decreasing rank of efficacy: LLLT, 5% minoxidil, and 2% minoxidil. The evidence quality of the highest ranked therapies, for male and female AGA, was judged to be low.

While newer treatments like LLLT may be more efficacious than more traditional therapies like 5% minoxidil, the efficacy of the more recent treatment modalities needs to be further validated by future RCTs.