Comparative efficacy of oral dutasteride and low-, medium-, and high-dose oral minoxidil: a six-month prospective trichoscopic and clinical study

In this exploratory, non-randomized clinical trial, oral minoxidil was associated with short-term improvements in clinical severity, while oral dutasteride did not demonstrate measurable early clinical change within the six-month follow-up. Trichoscopic findings were limited and did not consistently parallel clinical outcomes, suggesting that early therapeutic effects in routine practice may be more readily captured by clinical staging than by regional microscopic assessment. These observations should be interpreted cautiously given the study design and sample size, and they warrant confirmation in larger, randomized studies with longer follow-up.