Would You Combine Topical Naltrexone for Scalp PRP for Male Pattern Alopecia?

Clinical Pharmacist Nat Jones
Nat Jones, R.Ph. FAPC

Would you combine topical Naltrexone for scalp PRP for male pattern alopecia?  We've not done that typically for  PRP.  We are using the traditional type of  hair solution compounds that we make with Minoxidil and/or tretinoin and/or finasteride and/or progesterone with a handful of other ingredients, peptides included sometimes in these formulations.  But no, we've not done Naltrexone for that.  

If you've got inflammation in the scalp Naltrexone would make a lot of sense but it's not inflamed and it's not itching then I really don't see the necessity  to put it in there because it's not an autoimmune problem it's just literally an androgen driven process. What's happening is you're converting your testosterone to dihyde.  Your testosterone and dihydrotestosterone stimulates the five a reductase conversion.  The receptors in the scalp, once they get stimulated with dihydrotestosterone will truncate hair growth.  They'll push it into premature catagen phase so controlling that conversion of the five Alpha reductase enzyme is what's key. Blocking that with either a five a reductase inhibitor like finasteride or dutasteride or with a natural substance like progesterone, typically we use progesterone at a 0.25 percent. It works quite nicely for this.  You can use it higher but I don't really think you need a whole lot more especially in the male patients.  Men don't make a lot of progesterone. They make some in our adrenal glands obviously but we don't make very much of it so a small amount of progesterone would do nicely as the 5f reductase inhibitor.