DCP (Diphenylcyclopropenone)

Hello,
I am a 14 year old girl and have gained a lot of confidence from reading posts on AW. I have had aa for over six months. I have hardly any eyelashes, one and a half eyebrows and quite a few bald patches. And since it started it has got a lot worse. They first started me off with dermovate which I had to use every night, though it gave me bad spots and didnt really work ;( I was also given protopic ointment which i was told just to use on my eyebrow, after using it i now have half an eyebrow, its still not whole but its better than it was.
3 weeks ago I went back to the hospital and had 20 steroid injections which were really painful and have left scars and dips in my skin.I have to have them again in 6 weeks and they told me to stop using dermovate and use the protopic ointment all over instead but I am looking for a less painful solution to try.
I have also been offered DCP (Diphenylcyclopropenone) treatment which I would have to go to the hospital every week to have it applied, but I have heard that it can be itchy and leave blisters and redness!!
Has anyone had DCP treatment? and if so, have you had any results or just pain and blisters?? I know there is no cure for Alopecia but I feel that I need to try different treatments to prevent it form getting worse and so that I can say "well at least I tried".
Abigail :D

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Permalink Reply by David B on February 27, 2011 at 11:00pm
I have never had the dcp treatment, but have heard and been told their are good results from it!
Permalink Reply by Amy on February 27, 2011 at 11:41pm
I did the treatments once a week for 6 months. My hair did start to grow back a little, but I made so many changes in my life at the same time, that I'm not really convinced the treatment did much. And to be honest, the emotional toll it took on me was harder than the actual treatments. This is basically what my life was like for 6 months. Keep in mind that I was completely bald at this point and had the liquid applied to my entire scalp.

I did the treatments every Friday afternoon so that I would have the weekend to recuperate. I was not allowed to shower or get my head wet for 24 hours after the treatment. The 72 hours after the treatment was horrible. My head felt like it was on fire, it would crack, bleed and a clear sticky liquid would seep out. There was no way I could put a hat on let alone a wig to go out. You can imagine the impact that had on my social life. I didn't go out on the weekends for 6 months. Sometimes, even by Monday my head was still so bad that I didn't go to work. The thought of wearing my wig was too painful. I'm a teacher and I didn't want to scare my poor little grade 2 kids by coming to school with a messed up head and no hair! It usually took until Thursday for my head to start healing, but it was always super red, sore, cracked and peeling. It would just get to be tolerable and it would be Friday again and time to go back to the hospital for another treatment.

That was my experience. You said that you have bald patches, so it might be better for you because you won't have to treat your whole scalp.

I have AU, no eyebrows and some eyelashes. After dealing with AU for about 9 months I ended up getting my eyebrows and eyeliner tattooed. Best decision ever! You're only 14, so you might be kind of young to go with the tattoo and hopefully this is just temporary and all your hair will come back :)

Good luck making your decision and feel free to message me if you have any questions about the DCPC treatment.
Permalink Reply by Susan P aka DGADBS on February 28, 2011 at 3:51pm
Abigail I have had many DCP treatments and Amy pretty much sums up the reaction to them and she put it mildly! I had to stop them for 6 months because my immune system overreacted and I broke out in hives. Then when I started the treatments again and, after just a few the hives came back again with a vengence, I was on medication for two years to control the hives. I would have raised welts all over my body and the itch and burn would drive me crazy. My skin looked like I had been whipped with welts all over and if I wouldn't have taken pictures my doctor never would have believed just how bad the reaction was. So I can never get near DCP again. My hair did grow back briefly but I only had AA before the treatments and now I have AU so who's to say if it helped at the time or made it worse forever. Be sure to get as much information as possible before trying the treatments, I know we would do anything to get our hair back but in the end it wasn't worth it for me.
Permalink Reply by Jill Wolfe on March 1, 2011 at 7:30pm
I did have the treatment, at first it was fine at low doses as it got increased it got worst, there is redness, burning, and your skin get dry, it itches and flakes off...there comes a point when i didnt think i could handle it, but i got through it and the hair did grow back quite fast. thats just my experience with the treatment tho....good luck with your treatment I hope whatever you decide works. I to get the injections and agree they suck and hurt, I have to travel 2 hours to get there and 10 minutes for the treatment and 2 hours back....but we do what we have to....take care
Permalink Reply by Cheri A on March 5, 2011 at 3:53pm
Hi Jill,
I'm starting DCP treatments myself in about 3 weeks so I'm following this discussion carefully. Can I ask you, did your hair stay in after it grew back? How long ago did you have this treatment?
Cheri
Permalink Reply by Susan P aka DGADBS on March 2, 2011 at 7:33am
I'm pretty sure that DCP treatments are only done in Canada so most members might not know of this.
Permalink Reply by Longaa doc on March 2, 2011 at 7:57pm
Hi Abigail,

I have AA for many years now. I am currently a physician in USA. I have pretty much read everything available in scientific literature about all standard treatments (and some experimental ones as well). From my reading experience, my conclusion (once again, this is just my conclusion) is that DPCP is one of the most effective treatment (if not the most effective treatment) currently available for AA/AT/AU. Having said that, it is not for everyone as you can tell from varying experiences reported above. It is also not a cure. It is not widely available in USA. For this kind of treatment, it is very important to have it done with someone who has extensive experience with it. A dermatologist who has only read about it or only occasionally tried it over years is not the best person to treat you. So if you do decide to get the treatment, do it with someone who has extensive experience with it. This is significant variation in how experienced doctor will treat compared to a novice.

Ultimately it is your decision but if you do decide to do it, do it with an experienced dermatologist.
Permalink Reply by Cheri A on March 5, 2011 at 4:01pm
Hi Longaa doc,

I'm also debating doing the DCP treatment and I find your personal conclusions encouraging. Have you had the opportunity to try it yourself or is it not available to you in the US?
Cheri
Permalink Reply by Erin Gosselin on March 2, 2011 at 8:00pm
I tried DCP, and for me it wasn't successful. I saw no change in hair growth. I did however, find it fairly uncomfortable, but that being said....I would have gladly been uncomfortable had my hair grown in. Unfortunately I wasn't as lucky as some! Good luck with whatever you choose!!
Permalink Reply by me on March 3, 2011 at 8:06pm
i would not recommend using dcp. my hair did start to grow back, and i'm not sure if it's from the treatment or not, but i can honestly say the experience i had using it was awful. i used it for a few months this past summer and decided enough was enough.

the reaction i got was probably the worst it could have been. i was always itchy and because of that, my head would ooze with some liquid and bleed. i had to change my pillowcase every day because of the liquids on it. during the night, what oozed out of my head ended up on my face, neck, and arms. even today, months after using it, i have round, brown, scars on my arms from the treatment. it felt like my whole entire head was on fire. i would constantly itch and pick the dead skin off of my head which just added more of a mess. also, my head just looked disgusting. i had a white baseball hat that i used to wear when i still had some hair to cover up bald spots before i shaved it and the hat now has all yellow spots from the reaction i had.

again, this may have started the regrowth with my hair, but it was such an awful experience, and when i got off it, my hair that just grew back stayed, and even more grew. you may want to try this out and see how you react to it. good luck!
Permalink Reply by Nadine on March 5, 2011 at 10:09pm
Dont use DCP i swear youll traumatize your self!
Its just not worth it i broke out in hives puss on my head it would even reach my neck. Once my ear swelled up like a ballon. Its so easy to get the stuff everywhere all you have to do is touch your head where its on and accidentally scratch your eye or arm!!!! I had insomnia for a month whilst taking it because i could sleep with all the itching and you lie on your head to sleep so it just doesnt work. I also wore a wig with it and it was horrible!. Please just take care to really think about it i did it for a few months then became resistant to the stuff and it didnt work at all for me and my head if anything is worse im completely bald now.
i actually wrote a poem about it check my blog its called DCP
Permalink Reply by tim kay on March 19, 2011 at 5:04am
Abigail be careful, this is powerful medicine and can have different reactions. i have used it and had some growth but it is painful with the blistering. Make sure you try a small test spot and give it 2-3 days to see how u react. Yes there is itchiness, redness, and blisters. There are medicines to help the healing process if u have a bad reaction, just contact your dermatologist. Good luck, Tim

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