Permethrin 5% dermal cream: a new treatment for scabies.

Abstract

Permethrin 5% dermal cream (Burroughs Wellcome Co.) was compared in an investigator-blinded, randomized study against lindane 1% lotion (Kwell) for the treatment of microscopically confirmed scabies. Eleven of twenty-three patients treated with permethrin cream were cured in 2 weeks (48%). Only two patients had scabies 1 month following a single treatment with this product, giving a cure rate of 91%. One of these two patients was considered to have a reinfestation. Only three of twenty-three (13%) patients treated with 1% lindane lotion (Kwell) were free of scabies 2 weeks after a single treatment and fifteen of twenty-three (65%) were cured at 1 month. The unusually high percentage of treatment failures (35%) following lindane therapy may have been related to extensive use of this agent for head lice and scabies in this village during the preceding 5 years. The higher cure rate at 1 month seen with permethrin cream was significant (p less than 0.025). Permethrin 5% dermal cream offers a new, cosmetically elegant alternative to lindane therapy and was effective in a community in which lindane demonstrated an unacceptable level of treatment failures.

• Authors: D Taplin, T L Meinking, S L Porcelain, P M Castillero, J A Chen
• Journal: Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (J Am Acad Dermatol) Vol. 15 Issue 5 Pt 1 Pg. 995-1001 (Nov 1986) ISSN: 0190-9622 [Print] United States
• PMID: 2431015 (Publication Type: Clinical Trial, Comparative Study, Journal Article, Randomized Controlled Trial, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Pyrethrins
• Permethrin
• Hexachlorocyclohexane

Topics

• Administration, Topical
• Adolescent
• Adult
• Child
• Child, Preschool
• Clinical Trials as Topic
• Drug Resistance, Microbial
• Female
• Hexachlorocyclohexane (therapeutic use)
• Humans
• Male
• Permethrin
• Pyrethrins (administration & dosage, therapeutic use)
• Scabies (drug therapy)