Does vitiligo patients need to take long-term medication?

Vitiligo is a chronic disease, and the treatment of vitiligo needs patients to take a relatively long-term medication continuously. A lot of patients have the feeling that when they first take a vitiligo medication, the effect is good, and after taking it for a long time, the medication is not as effective as before. The main reason why vitiligo long-term medication will cause drug resistance is that some drugs are subjected to the action of drug-metabolizing enzymes in the liver in the body. When the vitiligo drug gets into the blood and the white patches sites, it will be effective if it reaches a certain concentration, but soon the drug will be destroyed by the liver drug enzymes under the action of the decomposition, its effect is hence diminished.

So for the patients who take long-term use of drugs, the efficacy of the drug will appear not as good as before or simply does not work. To avoid this phenomenon, vitiligo treatment drugs should be based on the patient's condition and physical fitness along with other factors to decide which specific medication to use and the amount of it. Also adjust it according to the patient’s medication in the treatment process, to avoid excessive medication which endangers the health of patients, or a too small amount of medication that cannot result in a good treatment effect.

Patients need to know that most of the vitiligo medications are effective in the middle of the course of treatment, and a rash interruption of treatment or switching to other treatment medications will affect the effectiveness of the treatment. If the new medication is not effective, the patient's confidence in the treatment will be affected. Therefore, patients should not change or discontinue the medication before the end of the course of treatment as this may reduce the effectiveness of the medication.

The four main points to note in the treatment of vitiligo are correct treatment, persistent treatment, comprehensive treatment, and systematic treatment. If vitiligo patients want to get rid of the skin's white patches, they must adhere to the treatment and don’t give up. At the same time, the treatment should include the combination of multiple treatment methods, while using internal, injections and other drug treatment, choosing laser treatment, surgery treatment, and other therapies, paying attention to the conditioning of Chinese herbal medicine, supplemented by food therapy, spiritual therapy, and other complementary therapies. Thus receives a comprehensive treatment with the best efficacy, obtaining both internal and external improvement, and say goodbye to white patches as soon as possible!

However, vitiligo treatment does not necessarily require long-term medication. Vitiligo medication can be discontinued as soon as the skin health is gradually restored to normal after treatment and the condition enters a relative resting phase for more than a year after the skin tone is normal. And, the treatment of vitiligo must be done before it is too late, early vitiligo is more curable. Don't wait until the condition worsens and then treat it, which not only makes it more difficult to treat but also causes a lot of psychological stress and mental burden to the patient.