Propecia Online

This was the longest ongoing hair loss treatment clinical trial to date. It indicated that Propecia is beneficial after 5 years of continued use.

A New and Different Five-Year Trial of Propecia Indicated That the “Hair Count” Gap Expanded With Time Between Those Who Received the Drug, and Those Who Received a Placebo.

The longest running clinical trial for hair loss ever conducted indicated that men who used Propecia (finasteride 1 mg) had much more hair than those who were administered a placebo for five years. This data was revealed during the 59th annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Men who had been treated with Propecia for five years experienced hair growth in a one inch area of scalp of 277 hairs. The ones that were given a placebo (n=15). The baseline hair counts for every man at the beginning of the study averaged 876 hairs in one-inch diameter circle.

“This study offers long-term data that a majority of men with vertex male pattern hair loss kept their base-line hair amount by using Propecia,” said Keith Kaufman, M.D., senior director, Clinical Research, Merck Research Laboratories.

“Also this research was the first controlled clinical experiment to analyze untreated hair loss during five years and to reveal the progression of hair loss in men.” Created by Merck & Co., Inc., Propecia is utilized as a remedy for specific kinds of hair loss in men exclusively, based on two years of research. The only tablet for pattern hair loss for males that has the Food and Drug Administration’s approval, Propecia is a treatment done once daily. About thirty million men have problems with loss of hair in the U.S. Propecia is not to be used for children and females.

The results obtained at the conclusion of the fifth year of study by a double-blind placebo group, containing 1,553 men aged 18 to 41 with moderate hair loss on the top of the head, supported the safety of Propecia. There has not been an establishment of hair loss at the temples, or bi-temporal recession efficacy.

Those males that entered the first 12-month Propecia trials randomly received the drug (n=779) or the placebo (n=774). The original 12 month experiments were renewed annually, with just a small number of males using the placebo in the following years, as planned in the study procedure. After finishing each extension of one year, each man was offered the chance to sign up for the following one-year extension, for a period not to exceed five years. The data, accumulated over a five year period, demonstrated outcomes for men who maintained the Propecia or placebo regimen for the duration of the five years.

The effectiveness of Propecia was evaluated by monitoring four distinct characteristics: investigator assessments of hair growth, comparison of “before” and “after” photos, counting individual hair strands in a one-inch diameter circle on the scalp, and patient surveys and questionnaires. How well Propecia works versus the placebo was reported as follows:

Hair count: When the study began, baseline hair counts were on the average 876 hairs per diameter inch of scalp. When the initial year was over, men following the Propecia regimen experienced on average 126 hairs more than their colleagues on the placebo regimen. The variations continued to increase, and, when the fifth year was finished, the men who used Propecia had 277 more hairs than the other group. At the close of the fifth year, 65 percent of the males using Propecia (n=21) still had the same amount of hair or had more hair than they originally had at the beginning of the research, but every man who used the placebo (n=15) had a reduction in their hair count.

Before and after images: Several dermatologists who looked at standardized clinical photographs of men treated with Propecia (n=279) and men on placebo (n=16) after the five year study said that 90% of those who took Propecia didn’t have a noticeable amount of further hair loss when compared with 25% of those who took the placebo.

Patient questionnaires: Questionnaires completed after five years by men on Propecia (n=284) and by men on placebo (n=15) indicated that men using Propecia tended to be happier with the overall appearance of their hair. (63% vs. 20%), hair on the crown area of the head (59% vs. 13%) and a hairline front amount (48% vs. 7%). A greater number of men undergoing the Propecia regimen reported that their area of baldness was reduced in size (61% vs. 20%; they underwent an improvement in the look of their hair (77% vs. 40%; they have seen more hair growth (75% vs. 40%); they confirmed that they had undergone a noted increase in the amount of hair (75% vs. a 67%.

Investigator Assessments: Physician investigators who looked at those men taking Propecia (n=279) and men on placebo (n=13) after the five year study said that 77% of the men on Propecia had more scalp hair growing in than the 15% of men taking the placebo.

Safety profile over five years

Procepia realized a safety profile of excellence over the five year study period. During the 12 months of scientific studies, the most frequent side effects experienced by a few men were: decreased sexual desire (1.8% as opposed to 1.3% on placebo), problems getting an erection (1.3% versus .7%,) and a reduced semen production (0.8 % vs. 0.4%). The majority of these sexual side effects vanished in both men who discontinued treatment and men who continued to take Propecia for five years. When the fifth year was over, side effects were no more than 0.3% in the men who maintained the Propecia regimen vs. males taking the placebo.