Background: Telogen effluvium (TE) is a common cause of non-cicatricial hair loss with no treatment-standardized protocol. The aim of our study was to evaluate the efficacy, tolerability, and patient compliance of a treatment with an oral supplement based on arginine, l-cystine, zinc and B<inf>6</inf> vitamin (Cystiphane®, Laboratoires Bailleul, Geneva, Switzerland) with hair-growth properties, administered 4 times daily, in patients affected by TE.
Methods: We recruited 20 patients, aged between 18 and 70 years old, affected by TE. Patients were asked to take the oral supplement as a monotherapy, four tablets daily, in one or two administrations during meals. The study lasted 3 months. We evaluated the efficacy and tolerability of the treatment both qualitatively by collecting the clinician's opinion through a clinical evaluation and clinical-anamnestic form filled in by the researcher, and quantitatively through global photography and trichoscopy. We collected the patient's opinion through a self-assessment test, at the beginning of the recruitment and after 3 months of treatment.
Results: Eighteen patients were evaluated. After 3 months of taking the supplement, the researcher rated an average improvement of 2.89 at the clinical evaluation. For what concerns hair quantity, at the control trichoscopy, the mean trichoscopic value had risen to +2.055, whereas for hair diameter the mean trichoscopic diameter value had increased to +1.83. After 3 months of treatment, patients gave an average efficacy opinion of 3.61.
Conclusions: The oral supplement has proved effective as an adjuvant in the treatment of TE in our cohort of patients.