Current vitiligo treatments on the NHS

Vitiligo causes loss of pigment on the skin and white patches appear in the affected areas. This condition affects around 1% of the population worldwide. There is not a lot of information about what treatments work to help vitiligo.

Small patches of vitiligo are usually treated with topical steroid ointments. Ultraviolet B light therapy (also known as NB-UVB) is also sometimes offered as a treatment, but it involves frequent visits to hospital and is mainly for large areas when vitiligo is more widespread. Hand-held NB-UVB light units are available to use in the home on small patches of vitiligo. However, these units are not available on the NHS.

 

What we want to find out

There is not a lot of information about how well steroid ointments and light therapy treatments work, and we don’t know whether they would work, or work better, together.

To help us understand more about vitiligo treatment options we are comparing changes in vitiligo in three different groups of participants:

  • Participants who use steroid ointment only
  • Participants who use light therapy at home only
  • Participants who use steroid ointment and home light therapy.

All participants who help with the trial will receive at least one active treatment for their vitiligo.

Previous participant's story

It is not just for your benefit, but for the hundreds of thousands of people who have this disease throughout the world. (Click speech bubble for English, Hindi, Urdu or Welsh subtitles)

Maxine's story