Evaluating the Effect of Eicosapentaenoic Acid in Children With Atopic Dermatitis: A Randomized Triple-Blind Clinical Trial

Bahador Mirrahimi; Mahsa Moazemi; Narges Eslami; Elham Jamshidi; Mahshad Mir; Rezvaneh Mohebbi; Hadi Esmaily

doi:10.5863/1551-6776-28.1.29

Evaluating the Effect of Eicosapentaenoic Acid in Children With Atopic Dermatitis: A Randomized Triple-Blind Clinical Trial

J Pediatr Pharmacol Ther. 2023;28(1):29-35. doi: 10.5863/1551-6776-28.1.29. Epub 2023 Feb 3.

Authors

Bahador Mirrahimi¹, Mahsa Moazemi², Narges Eslami³, Elham Jamshidi², Mahshad Mir⁴, Rezvaneh Mohebbi⁴, Hadi Esmaily¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Pharmacy (BM, HS), School of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
² Student Research Committee (MM, EJ), School of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
³ Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (NE), Mofid Children's Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁴ Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center (MM, RM), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effects of dietary eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in children with atopic dermatitis.

Methods: Forty-eight children with atopic dermatitis were randomly allocated to receive either 250 mg twice daily EPA (n = 24) or placebo (n = 24) for 4 weeks. The absolute improvement in the SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) index and the necessity to use topical corticosteroids was evaluated.

Results: Based on an intention-to-treat analysis, after 2 weeks the scores decreased to 30.50 ± 8.91 and 38.34 ± 10.52 in the EPA and placebo groups, respectively (p = 0.015). Per-protocol analysis showed a decrease in scores to 18.01 ± 10.63 in the EPA group and to 30.11 ± 9.58 in the placebo group (p = 0.001). After 2 weeks, corticosteroid was needed in 11 (50.0%) patients in the EPA group and 14 (58.3%) patients in the placebo group (p = 0.571), and after 4 weeks, it was needed in 7 (33.3%) patients in the EPA group and 14 (63.6%) patients in the placebo group, respectively (p = 0.047).

Conclusions: Our results show significant favorable effects of EPA on the SCORAD scale and with regard to the necessity for corticosteroid readministration. Few adverse effects were reported in the 2 groups. We conclude that EPA supplementation is a well-tolerated and effective add-on strategy for reducing the severity of atopic dermatitis in children.

Keywords: atopic; dermatitis; dietary supplement; eczema; eicosapentaenoic acid; pediatrics.

Grants and funding

Disclosures. The authors declare no financial interest in any product or service mentioned in the manuscript, including grants, equipment, medications, employment, gifts, and honoraria. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.