Treating Hair Loss: Over-the-... Video Transcript

Participants

Marc Avram MD, Peter S. Halperin MD, David Folk Thomas

Summary

With so many people suffering from hair loss, it's no surprise that there are many different medications out there: from over-the-counter options to prescription medications. How do you determine what's right for you? Join our experts as they talk about the various options for hair loss.

Webcast Transcript

DAVID FOLK THOMAS:  Welcome to our webcast.  I'm David Folk Thomas.  Hair loss:  In the U.S. alone, it affects tens of millions of men and women, and with all these people suffering from hair loss, it's no surprise that there are so many medications out there to choose from over-the-counter options to prescription medications.  How do you determine what's right for you, and are prescription medications necessarily better?

Joining me to discuss the various medical options are two guests.  On my left is Dr. Peter Halperin.  Peter, thanks for joining me today.  Next to Peter is Dr. Marc Avram, and both Peter and Marc are assistant professors in the department of dermatology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and New York Hospital.  Marc, thanks for joining me and Peter here, although you guys got here at the same time.

Marc, let me start with you right off the bat.  In general, what is the difference between and over-the-counter medication and prescription medication in regards to hair loss?

MARC AVRAM, MD:  Prescription medications have had clinical trials where they've been studied, what the effect, the side effect, how effective a medication is.  Clinical trials should reflect something that's reproducible, something that you can do in a lab in New York and Los Angeles and London, and get the same results.  Something that's not a prescription means it hasn't undergone the clinical trials.  We don't know exactly what it does and doesn't do.  It hasn't been approved by the FDA, and since it's not approved by the FDA, you can make any claim you want for a medication that hasn't been regulated by the FDA as a prescription.  So an over-the-counter medication can be good, it can be very effective, and some medications we use for hair loss are over the counter, and there are a lot of other ones that someone can make up and just claim anything, what it does and doesn't do without any clinical trials and scientific basis to it.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS:  What about something like Zantac that has gone from one to the other.  Can you take us through that?

MARC AVRAM, MD:  Zantac, that's a medication -- and there are a lot of them now that have been used for years, and we know what the long-term side effects are, the safety profiles, and what the FDA does is when they feel comfortable with a medication, that it's safe and it can be used over the counter, it will take a medication and put it over the counter, meaning that they feel it poses very little potential risk and side effect.  A medication that was done for hair loss was Rogaine.  Minoxidil was for many years a prescription.  It had a very good safety profile, so it was put over the counter the way Zantac was -- it was a prescription put over the counter for the stomach, for the GI tract.  With Rogaine it's been done now for hair.

PETER HALPERIN, MD:  It was available by prescription only for five years or so.  I think one thing that pushes it back from being prescription to over the counter is that the company wants it to be over the counter.  The company can sell it to more patients, because they therefore don't need a prescription.  Somebody can just walk into the pharmacy and ask for it or buy it or pick it off the shelf without coming in with that prescription from their doctor.  So the company wants it to be over the counter in some instances, if they feel they can make more money on the product.