Evidence Hub

Alopecia Areata - Effects of Treatment with Upadacitinib - Two Case Reports

Młyńska J, Mysiorska D, Zdanowska N, Owczarczyk-Saczonek A

Clinical, cosmetic and investigational dermatology, 2026

Abstract

Introduction: Alopecia areata (AA) is a condition in which the immune system attacks the hair follicles, resulting in hair loss. A deeper understanding of AA's underlying mechanisms has contributed to the development of new therapies, such as JAK inhibitors. There are only two EMA-approved medications for AA. Upadacitinib shows much potential, but there are few reports on its effectiveness.

Case report: The clinical presentation of AA is variable. We report two cases of AA to highlight the varied clinical presentations and diagnostic challenges in our setting and encourage consideration of using upadacitinib as a treatment, which has yielded satisfactory results, with visible regrowth of vellus hair within 3-6 months. In one case, we have a classical form of AA universalis, and in the other one, we have the coexistence of AA with sarcoidosis.

Conclusion: The early inclusion of effective treatment for AA with JAK inhibitors contributes to an improvement in the patient's quality of life, both physically and psychologically, without further aggravating the skin lesions of sarcoidosis.

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a case report, done in people. Its evidence level is 5 of 5 (Very low · case / narrative / animal / in vitro / in silico). Case reports, narrative reviews, and animal, cell or computer-model studies give the weakest evidence for human health.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free