study analysis shows that oral minoxidil at 5mg/day is more effective than 5% topical
This network meta-analysis examines whether minoxidil, dutasteride, or finasteride monotherapy is the most efficacious for the treatment of male androgenetic alopecia.
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Question: For male androgenetic alopecia, what is the relative efficacy of monotherapy with orally and topically administered minoxidil, dutasteride, and finasteride?
Findings: In this network meta-analysis of 23 trials, the rank of efficacy across treatments and the relative efficacy for every possible pairwise comparison of treatments were determined for 4 end points (ie, change in total and terminal hair count after 24 and 48 weeks). The results of this meta-analysis indicate that 0.5 mg/d of oral dutasteride has the highest probability of being the most efficacious treatment, followed by these agents in decreasing order of efficacy: 5 mg/d of oral finasteride, 5 mg/d of oral minoxidil, 1 mg/d of oral finasteride, 5% topical minoxidil, 2% topical minoxidil, and 0.25 mg/d of oral minoxidil.