Plaquenil (Hydroxychloroquine) for Rosacea

[Guide]

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), sold under the brand name Plaquenil among others (Hydroquin, Axemal, Dolquine, Quensyl, Quinoric), is a medication used to prevent and treat malaria in areas where malaria remains sensitive to chloroquine. It is frequently sold as a sulfate salt known as hydroxychloroquine sulfate. Wikipedia

Treatment for Rosacea
There are reports that this treatment has worked for rosacea. Since Hydroxychlorquine is available in a generic prescription and is available around the world in such brand names as Plaquenil, Hydroquin, Axemal, Dolquine, Quensyl, and Quinoric rosaceans can refer to this paper and ask their physician for a prescription for an eight week course. We should be hearing reports whether others report success with this treatment. Please post your experience in this thread. 

Clinical Papers on Hydroxychloroquine and Rosacea

"Finally, the 8-week HCQ treatment exerted satisfactory therapeutic effects on erythema and inflammatory lesions of rosacea patients, indicating that it is a promising drug for rosacea in clinical treatment."
Hydroxychloroquine is a novel therapeutic approach for rosacea.

Efficacy and safety of hydroxychloroquine for treatment of patients with rosacea: a multi-center, randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, pilot study.

Hydroxychloroquine Suppresses LL37-induced Mast Cells

"Interestingly, hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial medication and disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD), demonstrated effectiveness in treating symptoms in a subgroup of the neurogenic rosacea patients."
Neurogenic Rosacea: What Pharmacists Should Know, Pharmacy Times

Thanks to David Pascoe at RSG, "A pre-proof version of an article to appear in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology details a small double blind study that found that oral hydroxychloroquine 200 mg twice a day offered similar benefits to rosacea sufferers compared to doxycycline 100 mg a day." [1]

Anecdotal Reports
---------------------------Duff Man reports:
"I tried every cream imaginable; the list of creams I didn't try is shorter. I went for 13 years without a full remission; started getting the rash really bad when I was a handsome young man, and it really was tough on my self esteem. It did a number on my face, and began to cover my scalp too.

The only thing that finally worked for me with long lasting, real remission, is plaquenil. My only regret is that I didn't try it sooner. Much, much sooner.

In hindsight, I think it was likely lupus all along, and my experience really has me questioning how many other people with "rosaceae" are just lupus sufferers.

I would encourage folks here to do an honest self audit to reconcile any symptoms that may be similar to lupus and connect the dots. And whatever you do, whatever your gut tells you, please don't give up on finding a lasting resolution.

Even if I don't have lupus, the treatment for it resolved my horrible, red, burning, painful, embarrassing rash. I don't really care what we call it because I'm able to look in the mirror again. And Im feeling my age again.

I hope everyone here finds a lasting remission. Don't stop until you do." Duff Man post no 221 on 4/17/2017 (scroll down to next post for more info).

-------------------------------------end Duff Man report

"hydroxychloroquine has been the first drug that actually feels like it's starting to help the instability on my face a bit." owldog post no 79

Scarlet Letters has an interesting article discussing using mepacrine and plaquenil in treating rosacea.

Jamoverton [post no 7] reports hydroxychloroquine was part of his regimen that puts him "in a much better place due to medications."

Anti-Parasitic Treatment for Rosacea
Plaquenil (Hydroxychloroquine) is listed as one of the Anti-parasitic Prescription Agents For Rosacea.

Etcetera

Mepacrine

Hydroxychloroquine has been listed as one of the treatments considered for coronavirus.

Virus has never been ruled out in rosacea. 

 

Reply to this Topic

There is a reply to this topic button somewhere on the device you are reading this post. If you never heard about this topic and you learned about it here first, wouldn't it be a gracious act on your part to show your appreciation for this topic by registering with just your email address and show your appreciation with a post?  And if registering is too much to ask, could you post your appreciation for this topic by finding the START NEW TOPIC button in our guest forum where you don't have to register?  We know how many have viewed this topic because our forum software shows the number of views. However, most rosaceans don't engage or show their appreciation for our website and the RRDi would simply ask that you show your appreciation, please, simply by a post.  

End Notes

[1] A report published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology reports that oral hydroxychloroquine is just as effective as oral doxycycline in treating rosacea. [see post no 7 in this thread by scrolling down for the clinical paper source associated with this which is David Pascoe]

Am Acad Dermatol. 2020 May 18;S0190-9622(20)30915-4.  doi: 10.1016/j.jaad.2020.05.050. Online ahead of print.
Efficacy and Safety of Hydroxychloroquine for Treatment of Patients With Rosacea: A Multi-Center, Randomized, Double-Blind, Double-Dummy, Pilot Study
Ben Wang, Xin Yuan, Xin Huang, Yan Tang, Zhixiang Zhao, Bin Yang, Baoqi Yang, Yue Zheng, Chao Yuan, Hongfu Xie, Ji Li 

 

[Guide]

The president announced on March 19, 2020 that hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) has been approved by the FDA to treat COVID-19. 

Virus has never been ruled out in rosacea. 

CNN has a followup report on this. 

There is a paper that indicates using Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to treat rosacea "exerted satisfactory therapeutic effects on erythema and inflammatory lesions of rosacea patients, indicating that it is a promising drug for rosacea in clinical treatment." Duff Man told us about this a while back that it worked for him. 

Wouldn't it be incredible if any rosaceans who are treated with hydroxycholoroquine for COVID-19 also discovered that their rosacea improves or clears up! Is virus involved in rosacea?  If you do take hydroxycholoroquine and your rosacea improves, please let us know.

[Apurva Tathe]

Yes, because its all about immune system and HCQ does modulate the immune system in various ways and regulate the overactivity of immune system in some conditions. Not only does it work in getting rid of symptoms but it actually works behind the disease cause.

[Guide]

"In a statement released Sunday night, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it had received 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate and one million doses of hloroquine phosphate donated to a national stockpile of potentially life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, which are oral prescription drugs used primarily to prevent and treat malaria, are both being investigated as potential therapeutics for COVID-19."

Coronavirus live updates: FDA gives anti-malaria drugs emergency approval to treat COVID-19
The two drugs are being investigated as potential treatments for COVID-19., By Morgan Winsor and Emily Shapiro, March 30, 2020, 8:05 AM, ABC News

FDA Letter

Virus has never been ruled out in rosacea. 

[Guide]

There appears to be a shortage of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) according to several news sources. So if you somehow receive Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) treatment for covid19 and your rosacea improves, please find the green reply button in this thead to post your results. Furthermore, virus has never, ever been ruled out in rosacea.

End notes

Physicians Seek to Reassure Amid Hydroxychloroquine Shortage, Jeff Evans, March 27, 2020, Medscape

FDA SAYS THERE'S A SHORTAGE OF HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE AND CHLOROQUINE 'DUE TO A SIGNIFICANT SURGE IN DEMAND, BY KASHMIRA GANDER ON 4/1/20 AT 11:58 AM EDT, Newsweek

As Trump touts an unproven coronavirus treatment, supplies evaporate for patients who need those drugs, By Christopher Rowland , March 23, 2020 at 1:02 p.m. CDT, The Washington Post

Update 

Now there appears to be plenty of stock and absolutely no shortage. 

"The US now has more hydroxychloroquine than it knows what to do with following a series of studies that concluded the drug is an ineffective and potentially dangerous treatment for COVID-19. The federal government, which started stockpiling the drug in March, now has 63 million surplus doses of the drug, donated by companies including Novartis, and another 2 million doses of chloroquine, the New York Times reports. Some 31 million doses from the Strategic National Stockpile were distributed before the FDA withdrew its emergency authorization of the drug to treat the coronavirus. President Trump championed the drug for months, hailing it as a possible "game-changer" and announcing that he was taking it himself."

US Is Stuck With 63M Doses of Hydroxychloroquine, Rob Quinn, Newser

[Guide]

In a related news item, Ivermectin, another anti-parasitic drug, has been purported to treat coronavirus.

[Guide]

Thanks to David Pascoe at RSG, "A pre-proof version of an article to appear in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology details a small double blind study that found that oral hydroxychloroquine 200 mg twice a day offered similar benefits to rosacea sufferers compared to doxycycline 100 mg a day." [1]

End Notes

[1] Hydroxychloroquine works same as doxycycline for rosacea, David Pascoe, RSG

Am Acad Dermatol. 2020 May 18;S0190-9622(20)30915-4.  doi: 10.1016/j.jaad.2020.05.050. Online ahead of print.
Efficacy and Safety of Hydroxychloroquine for Treatment of Patients With Rosacea: A Multi-Center, Randomized, Double-Blind, Double-Dummy, Pilot Study
Ben Wang, Xin Yuan, Xin Huang, Yan Tang, Zhixiang Zhao, Bin Yang, Baoqi Yang, Yue Zheng, Chao Yuan, Hongfu Xie, Ji Li