Cosmetic Hair Treatments Improve Quality of Life in Women with Female Pattern Hair Loss

摘要

Hair is a significant component of physical attractiveness and body image. Therefore, losing hair often affects an individual's self-image, self-esteem, and overall quality of life. A study was designed to determine whether cosmetic hair appearance improvements produced any quality of life changes for women, even though no reversal of their female pattern hair loss (FPHL) would necessarily occur. A study to assess quality of life changes during the period that patients attended a trichology center was conducted over a 24 month period. Each participant attended the tricho-logy center every 4-12 weeks. The participants were advised of lifestyle changes to help their overall hair condition and given topical products and other treatments to help improve the cosmetic look of their hair loss problems. All participants were given the Kingsley Alopecia Profile (KAP) to complete at the initial consultation (month 0). The questionnaire was also given after six months of cosmetic treatments. The KAP is a valid and reliable 38 statement questionnaire which measures the effects of genetic alopecia on quality of life. The results demonstrated significant overall and subcategory (i.e., anxiety and depression, self- esteem, and psychosocial) improvements in quality of life after 6 months of treatment (p < 0.0001). This improvement in quality of life is indicated by a lower KAP and/or KAP subcategory score. The importance of hair loss on an individual's general quality of life should not be underestimated. This study has confirmed the results of many previous studies that FPHL has a major effect on the psychosocial and emotional well-being of women. With the lack of a reliable medical cure, chronic concerns of hair loss can lead to long term psychological problems. Therefore, the importance of a measurement which can quantify this impact for practitioners, thereby enabling them to treat the patient effectively, cannot be underrated.Topical trichology stimulants as well as a product~1 based on a proprietary marine ingredient2 from Pharma Medico Group~1, as used in this study, for treatment of FPHL have been shown to be of great value with respect to hair growth as well as the global improvement of the quality of life.%Dato che i capelli rappresentano una importante componente dell'attrazione fisica e dell'immagine globale del corpo umano, la loro perdita riduce notevolmente la stima in se stessi e la qualità della vita.Questo studio è stato condotto per determinare i c