Key clinical point: Cimetidine at a dose of 25-40 mg/kg along with standard treatment reduced severity of acute extrinsic atopic dermatitis (AD) without any serious adverse events.
Major finding: The SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) and objective SCORAD scores improved significantly in the cimetidine vs. placebo group at week 2 (both P = .004) and continued to improve further at weeks 4 (both P = .001), 6 (both P < .001), and 8 (both P < .001) after treatment. At week 2, gastric discomfort was reported by 1 patient receiving cimetidine, which improved after treatment discontinuation.
Study details: Findings are from a phase 3 study including 26 patients aged 12-60 years with AD who had acute lesions and were randomly assigned to receive 25-40 mg/kg cimetidine daily or placebo, both in conjunction with standard AD treatment.
Disclosures: This study did not receive any funding. The authors declared no conflict of interests.
Source: Novianto E et al. Effectiveness of cimetidine as adjuvant therapy in the treatment of acute-extrinsic atopic dermatitis: A double-blind randomized controlled trial. Dermatol Ther (Heidelb). 2022 (Feb 17). Doi: 10.1007/s13555-022-00688-z