Q: I am 22 years old. I want to know about PUVA treatment for alopecia areata. What are its side effects and how effective is it? Can the recurrence of the disease be prevented?

A:What is predictable about the outcome of the treatment of alopecia areata is its unpredictability. There is no treatment with 100% success. So is true for PUVA. Simple dictum in treatment of this disorder is that treatment should not be dangerous than disease. Systemic PUVA has local and systemic side effects mainly relating to drug psoralen and then also to UVA light therapy. We mainly use topical PUVA for alopecia areata, which produces local side effects like phototoxic reactions, erythema and blistering, etc.