Paroxetine effective in refractory erythema of rosacea treatment
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Paroxetine was effective and well tolerated among patients with refractory erythema of rosacea with 42.9% of patients experiencing clear or almost clear results, according to a study.
According to Ben Wang, MD, of Xiangya Hospital of Central South University in Changsha, China, and colleagues, paroxetine, a potent selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, specifically inhibits the reuptake of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT).
“When 5-HT uptake dysfunction occurs, blood vessels may dilate and constrict abnormally,” Wang and colleagues wrote. “Multiple studies have suggested that 5-HT is released by mast cells and platelets in several inflammatory skin diseases; abnormal release of 5-HT may also be involved in rosacea.”
In this prospective, double-blind, randomized clinical trial, researchers evaluated the efficacy and safety of paroxetine compared with placebo for treating moderate to severe refractory erythema of rosacea.
A total of 97 patients (age range, 18-65 years) were randomly assigned to 25 mg of paroxetine daily (n = 49) or placebo (n = 48) for 12 weeks.
The primary endpoint was defined as a 0 or 1 CEA score or a 2-point or greater improvement from baseline. Results showed the primary endpoint was achieved in 42.9% of paroxetine-treated patients compared with 20.8% of placebo-treated patients (P = .02).
The paroxetine group outperformed the placebo group in numerous secondary endpoints as well, including flushing improvement (44.9% vs. 25%; P = .04) and burning sensations (46.9% vs. 18.8%; P = .003).
However, the researchers said the difference in inflammatory lesion counts at the 12-week endpoint were not significant between the paroxetine group and placebo group (5.89 ± 16 vs. 12.79 ± 25.21), and telangiectasia improvement was comparable (42.9% vs. 43.8%).
Treatment-emergent adverse events were experienced by 24.1% of the paroxetine group and 11.1% of the placebo group, with the most common events being dizziness (10.3%), lethargy (10.3%), nausea (8.6%), dyspepsia (6.9%) and muscle tremors (5.2%).
“Our results showed that the erythema response rate plateaued in the placebo group at week 8, whereas a linear increase was evident in that of the paroxetine group over the course of 12 weeks,” the authors said. “This is an interesting clinical outcome, and we believe that the rate of erythema improvement will further increase with prolonged paroxetine treatment.”
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts