The Current Status of Korean Medicine Treatment of Alopecia : Focusing on Case Reports

The study reviewed 23 Korean medicine case reports on alopecia treatment from 1996 to 2018, covering 369 cases. It found that treatments often combined herbal medicine, acupuncture, pharmacopuncture, and topical applications, with herbal medicine used in 366 cases and acupuncture in 289 cases. The average treatment duration was 144 days, and most patients showed partial improvement without adverse effects. Despite the positive outcomes, the study noted a lack of standardized treatment protocols and insufficient single-treatment cases, which limited comparative analysis. It emphasized the need for more comprehensive research, including case-control studies and RCTs, to establish effective clinical guidelines for alopecia treatment.