Alopecia World
www.alopeciaworld.com
DCP treatment
My name is Richard and I've been dealing with AA since Nov 2012. My story begins with my barber noticing a small bald spot when cutting my hair. I ignored it until there were 3 spots, and then started growing from there. I've been reading people's blogs and noone has mentioned much about Diphencyprone (DCP) as a treatment lately. All the posts have been prior to 2014.
Is it because it's been discussed to death already? Or are people generally unaware? DCP treatment is a solution that is applied to your bald spots via q-tips. The solution causes you to break out in a rash to reset the auto immune system around that area.
I started DCP around June of 2013 after my AA got progressively worse. I think I had 50% hair loss on the back of my head and it was continuing to grow. I was put on DCP by my dermatologist after he's had success with it on totalis with younger kids. With on and off again treatment, I think I've reduced hairloss to about 20%. I wish I could show you before and after pictures because the change is drastic (i deleted the progression of my hair loss because I was just so depressed looking at it every time).
Please share your own story with DCP! Make no mistake about it, everyone going through the DCP treatment has similar experiences!
-
Comment by Starshine on July 30, 2014 at 9:52am
-
Hi Richard. There are currently a few posts going on regarding this treatment. I have also just started doing this treatment and would love to hear your exact protocol with it. I have diffuse AA and about 80 percent hair loss at this point. My derm applied the first full scalp treatment last week of .01 percent, but I am concerned as although I tolerated it well, my hair fall has increased dramatically. Do you think this is normal? Also, how long did it take for you to see results?
-
-
My apologies - I'm new to this site and when i searched "diphencyprone", i saw results dating back to 2013. There seemed to be new people (like me) to this site, so I wanted to share this, if it wasn't already, as I'm a firm believer in this treatment.
I actually saw results 1-2 weeks from where I was sensitized, when I went for my follow up. I could see small hair follicles growing, but mildly. After that, it took a few visits to find the solution top cause another reaction. I went from 0.001% all the way to 0.5% (0.001%, 0.01%, 0.1% and 0.5%) to cause a 2nd reaction. From there, we continued using 0.5% solution each visit / treatment. As mentioned, I was on and off again on treatment because of insurance purposes. The times I was off treatment showed no improvements. However, each time I had treatment, I saw improvements where treatment was applied. The back of my head started off with multiple bald spots, which the bald spots continued to grow and soon connected. With treatment, each bald spot slowly had small patches of hair growing inside them, which then later grew to reduce the baldness.
Like you, I continued to experience hair loss during treatment, but in areas that were not present before. The areas I did treatment stopped losing hair, but new places constantly keep showing up. Dermatologist said this was normal because the condition hasn't run its course yet. As of now, I believe that the hairloss has stopped though.
-
-
That could be why I am losing hair in places I had hair before. How bad was your reaction to .05? I think I may need to go a little higher. Also, are you using any topicals before or after and how often do you apply the DCPC? Sorry for all the questions, it is nice to talk to someone else who is using this stuff.
-
-
No worries, ask away. I posted because I wanted there to be more of a discussion and I'm happy to assist anyway I can.
The reaction was bad where pockets of blisters would form. It's really itchy, so that if you scratch, you'll probably pop the blister and have to deal with the pus. The itch also doesnt go away for days. Right now, I'm at 0.1% and it's itchy, but bearable.
Have you been sensitized to it yet? Initial treatment is 2% on a spot to get sensitized, and then have enough to cause a reaction. If there's a reaction, no need to go higher. You'll know if there's a reaction because the area where you applied the solution starts turning red, and starts beginning to itch after a few hours. Higher solution just makes the experience that much worse. I used some topical steriod when the baldness wasn't too bad, but once it got bad, the derm didnt bother trying the steroid injections and went straight to DCP treatment because it didn't help. I tried a cream and a spray (I forgot what they were) and neither worked for me until DCP.
Application has been once a month. I had the dermatologist apply it until my insurance copay ran out. I'm having someone else do it for me. DO NOT try to apply it yourself. Any contact with this will cause a rash. My hands touched my scalp after the application and I spread to my forearms by accident which made that itch for days as well.
-
-
Thanks, that is helpful. Yes, I was sensitized with 2 percent, but even then I did not get a really bad reaction, just red, no itch. Then he applied .01 to whole scalp and it mostly just got red, minor burning at first and a small raised bump, but not really a blister. still no itch and that only lasted a day. are you just treating areas or your whole scalp? I think from reading other posts that this treatment does work, but getting the right concentration is key and it takes patience. I also don't want to lose the little hair I have left.
-
-
Just treating the affected areas only. According to the dermatologists, we just need a reaction, no need for strong reaction. Being sensitized by the 2% wasnt too bad because it was a small area. Are you applying it yourself? If you are worried and can handle it, you can probably request a higher dosage.
-
Comment by JeffreySF on July 30, 2014 at 9:02pm
-
Interesting post.
Something else to look into!
Comment
© 2024 Created by Alopecia World.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Alopecia World to add comments!
Join Alopecia World