Safety and efficacy of topical essential oil as steroid-sparing agent in the treatment of atopic dermatitis in a community outreach care program of New Era University second year medical students, randomized double blind placebo controlled trial

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND@#The high rates of atopic dermatitis among children, treatment failures and treatment costs have created the search for new therapies to control flares of atopic dermatitis.@*OBJECTIVES@#We compared the efficacy and safety of topical essential oil (German Chamomile) versus topical steroids (hydrocortisone 1%) in controlling flares of atopic dermatitis.@*METHOD@#We randomly selected 60 children diagnosed of AD or children that qualified to the criteria of AD. They we’re randomly grouped into three. Twenty for Essential Oil (EO) group, twenty for Steroid group (SG) and Twenty for placebo (distilled water) group. They were advised to apply medicine kept in uniform brown plastic bottles 3x a day for 4 weeks. Data were recorded weekly using the EASI (Eczema Score Index) scoring. Other topical medications such as emollients and moisturizers were continued.@*RESULTS@#At week 4 control of flaring was achieved; 42% for EO group and 55% for steroid group. The differences in treatment effects were not statistically significant.@*CONCLUSION@#Essential oil was comparable in cure rate to mild topical steroid. Essential oil can be safe and affordable. However further study in a wider scale is recommended.