Talk to Your Doctor

When you are ready to talk to your doctor about alopecia areata research and the possibility of participating in a clinical trial, you should be ready to discuss your symptoms and the severity of your disease.

Researchers who are conducting clinical trials must develop qualification criteria that specifies exactly what type of patients will be admitted to a study, based on the way the drug that is being tested works.  For example:

• You may need to have had hair loss for a certain length of time (example: longer than 6 months)
• You may need to have a certain level of severity of alopecia areata (a certain percentage of hair loss, alopecia totalis or alopecia universalis, for example)
• You may need to have a minimum number of hair loss patches
• You may need to have hair loss on more than one area of the body, or only on one specific area
• You may need to stop using other types of treatments for a length of time before the trial starts
• You may need to be within a certain age range

Creating these criteria assures the researchers will have statistically reliable results when they complete the study and analyze their findings.