Alopecia (Hair Loss) and Autoimmune Disease

Q:  Help! I have recently been diagnosed with alopecia and have hair loss over my entire body, including the scalp. I will be bald soon. I have had vitiligo for 16 years and never had hair loss. In November, I started taking Celebrex for arthritis and started losing hair about January or February. Can there be a connection to this?

A:  Alopecia or hair loss can follow serious infections with high fever, pregnancy, severe dieting, skin diseases or use of prescription medications. Chemotherapy for cancer is a well-known cause of hair loss, but anti-depressants, anti-inflammatory medication and blood pressure medicines have also been reported to affect hair growth.

In your case, I do not think the Celebrex is responsible, but that you have alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease that affects about 2% of the population. It can range from small round patches of hair loss to loss of all scalp hair (alopecia totalis) to loss of all body hair (alopecia universalis), which is what you have.

Patients are usually otherwise healthy, but have more thyroid disease and vitiligo than the general population. Since you already have vitiligo (patchy loss of skin color), which is another finding seen with autoimmune conditions, it fits that you have now developed alopecia universalis. You can receive information and research updates from the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, telephone (415) 456-4644.

"Dear Doctor" is a compilation of patient questions answered by doctors from the Medical College of Wisconsin.