Roflumilast foam versus vehicle foam for seborrheic dermatitis (STRATUM clinical study): a plain language summary

Plain Language SummaryWhat is this summary about?Treatments for seborrheic dermatitis include over-the-counter products (medications that do not need to be prescribed by a healthcare professional) and prescription shampoos, foams, creams, oils, and solutions. These treatments can be time-consuming to apply, have bothersome side effects, cannot be used long-term, and/or do not work for everyone. Researchers are looking for better ways to treat seborrheic dermatitis. Roflumilast foam is a new prescription treatment applied to the skin that decreases inflammation and is not a steroid. This article is a summary of published research that describes the results of the STRATUM study of roflumilast foam in patients with seborrheic dermatitis.What are the key takeaways?Patients aged at least 9 years, with seborrheic dermatitis, were randomly assigned to treatment with roflumilast foam or vehicle foam (foam portion of the drug treatment with no prescription medicine) for 8 weeks. A greater proportion of patients who applied roflumilast foam had improvements in the severity of their seborrheic dermatitis and symptoms of itching, scaling, and/or skin redness, compared with patients who applied vehicle foam. Of patients who applied roflumilast foam, 80% had clear or almost clear skin and an improvement of seborrheic dermatitis severity by at least two points (on a 4-point scale) at the end of 8 weeks. Rates of side effects related to treatment were low and were similar between patients who applied roflumilast foam compared with those who applied vehicle foam.What were the main conclusions reported by the researchers?Adults, adolescents, and children aged at least 9 years with seborrheic dermatitis who applied roflumilast foam once daily had improved seborrheic dermatitis signs and symptoms after 8 weeks compared with patients who used vehicle foam.How to say (download PDF and double click sound icon to play sound)…Roflumilast: roh-FLOO-muh-lastInflammation: in-flah-MAY-shunSeborrheic dermatitis: seh-bor-EE-uhk der-muh-TAI-tuhsPhosphodiesterase: faas-fow-dai-es-ter-aysSide effect: A medical event that occurs after receiving a treatment (e.g., nausea, skin irritation), whether or not the event was related to the treatment.This is an abstract of the Plain Language Summary of Publication article.View the full Plain Language Summary PDF of this article to read the full-textLink to original article here