Effectiveness and safety of baricitinib in patients with alopecia areata: a systematic review and Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Abstract

Background

Since there is now no medication available that has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, alopecia areata (AA) is an autoimmune condition that has a detrimental impact on individuals. Recent clinical trials using baricitinib demonstrated that it may be effective in treating AA. This meta-analysis was done to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of baricitinib in comparison to placebo.

Methods

Author looked through Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, PubMed, for all published, randomized, clinical trials.

Results

This meta-analysis included 1282 participants from two citations (reporting three stand-alone studies). In term of SALT score, baricitinib significantly outperformed placebo; MD = −34.07, 95% CI [–37.90, −30.23], p < .00001. Additionally, the proportion of patients in the baricitinib group that attained SALT ≤ 20 was significantly higher than in the placebo group; RR = 6.41, 95% CI [4.57, 8.98], p < .00001. The results of the safety analysis revealed no significant differences between the baricitinib and placebo groups for any of the outcomes with the exception of acne, which was significantly higher in the placebo group when compared to the baricitinib group (RR= 4.79, 95% CI [2.38, 9.66], p .0001).

Conclusion

When compared to placebo, baricitinib is an effective and well-tolerated medication for the treatment of AA.

Keywords:

• Alopecia Areata
• Baricitinib
• meta-analysis

Transparency

Declaration of funding

This paper was not funded.

Declaration of financial/other relationships

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Acknowledgements

None.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.