Vitiligo Medical Cures - Treatment for Vitiligo Skin Disease

Vitiligo Medical Treatment - Topical psoralen for Vitiligo De-pigmentation

There are various forms of medical treatments available for treating vitiligo.



These are:

• Topical corticosteroid medical treatment - Corticosteroids may help to a certain extent to return normal color to the affected skin also known as re-pigmenting, especially if the administration has started early in the disease. These medicines which include cortisone resemble the hormones developed by the adrenal glands.
  
  
  
  The doctor can also prescribe a mild topical corticosteroid lotion or ointment for affected patients who are children younger than 10 years old; a stronger dosage may be required for adults. The medicated lotion or ointment needs to be applied to the white spots on the skin for at least three months before results are observed. Treatment involving corticosteroids are simple and safe, but the doctor may monitor the patient closely for side effects. Side effects may include thinning of the skin also known as atrophy, and stripes or lines on the skin known as skin striae. A vitamin D derivative known as Calcipotriene may also be used topically and doctors sometimes prescribe it along with corticosteroids or ultraviolet light.
  
  
• Topical psoralen plus ultraviolet A rays, also known as PUVA - Topical PUVA can be an option of treatment if the patient has a smaller number of de-pigmented spots, impacting less than 20 percent of the skin. PUVA, which is also known as photo-chemotherapy, is carried out under artificial UVA light. This treatment is usually done once or twice a week in the dermatologist’s clinic. A thin film of psoralen is first applied on the de-pigmented patches of the skin approximately 30 minutes before UVA light exposure. The doctor then exposes the patient to a certain amount of UVA light that causes the affected area of the skin to turn pink. The doctor is likely to increase the dose of the UVA rays over a period of weeks. After some time, the pink areas of the skin will fade and the natural skin color starts to show.
  
  
• De-pigmentation - involves weakening the rest of the normal skin on the body to correspond with the already-white patches. If the patient has white patches or vitiligo on more than 50 percent on the body, then de-pigmentation may be the closest option of therapy. During this process, monobenzone which is a drug is used twice a day to the affected pigmented patches of the skin until they begin to match the prevalent de-pigmented areas. However the patient is supposed to avoid direct contact with people for at least two hours after the drug has been applied.