ReviewSkin health and disease2025
Can oral minoxidil be the game changer in androgenetic alopecia? A comprehensive review and meta-analysis comparing topical and oral minoxidil for treating androgenetic alopecia.
Review in Skin health and disease, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Comparative Efficacy and Safety of Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) versus Topical Minoxidil for Androgenetic Alopecia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Aesthetic plastic surgery · 2026Pooled it
- Emerging pharmacotherapies and regenerative solutions for promoting hair growth for androgenetic alopecia.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Can oral minoxidil be the game changer in androgenetic alopecia? A comprehensive review and meta-analysis comparing topical and oral minoxidil for treating androgenetic alopecia.Skin health and disease · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is a hair disorder seen in both sexes. Its aetiology is multifactorial. Treating AGA has always been a challenge for dermatologists. Only a few drugs such as topical minoxidil and finasteride are U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved for treating AGA. Thus, looking for new and more effective treatment options for AGA is imperative. This review was conducted to compare the efficacy of oral with topical minoxidil in treating AGA. Only clinical trials that compared oral with topical minoxidil in treating AGA were included in this review. PubMed, Cochrane, Scopus and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched. A total of 2063 studies were retrieved from the databases. Four studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this systematic review. Outcomes such as hair density, terminal hair density, hair count, global photographic assessment and negative hair pull were studied in this review. The results showed that there was no significant difference between oral and topical minoxidil in terms of improving the hair density of patients with AGA (overall mean difference 0.95, 95% confidence interval -24.98 to 26.87). Two studies showed that the mean difference in terminal hair density was greater in patients treated with oral minoxidil, but there was no significant difference between the two treatments in terms of improving terminal hair density. The efficacy of oral minoxidil is comparable to that of topical minoxidil in terms of improving hair density and terminal hair density in patients with AGA. Oral minoxidil can be used as an adjunct or as a second-line treatment option for AGA.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.