New York, March 18 : Small amounts of a common antibiotic and anti-inflammatory drug can help treat a rare hair loss problem caused by a misplaced immune reaction, according to a study on Tuesday.

Low doses of antibiotics may also present fewer side effects than higher doses of the medication, said researchers at the New York University Langone Health.

The study explored lymphocytic scarring alopecia -- a rare skin condition in which the body's immune cells damage hair follicles, leading to hair loss and scarring.

Physicians typically treat this chronic disorder with relatively high doses of the antibiotic doxycycline -- often for prolonged periods.

However, the drug can trigger nausea, vomiting, and rashes and may discourage patients from continuing to take it, said the team, in the paper, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

To determine whether lower doses could work instead, the team involved 241 men and women. The participants, who were treated for several forms of lymphocytic scarring alopecia, revealed that lower doses (usually 20 milligrams taken twice daily) and higher doses (as much as 100 milligrams taken twice daily) of doxycycline were equally effective.

Specifically, no significant difference was seen between the two groups on evaluations of scalp inflammation, patients' perception of the severity of their hair loss, and clinical measurements of hair density, hair-shaft diameter, and hairline recession.

In addition, while 23 per cent of those on the high-dose regimen experienced common negative side effects of doxycycline, only 12 per cent of those taking smaller doses of the drug did so.

Further, while 25 per cent of the high-dose group stopped taking doxycycline altogether due to gastrointestinal issues, only 16 per cent of the low-dose group stopped treatment due to this side effect.

'Our findings suggest that physicians can prescribe lower doses of doxycycline to patients struggling with lymphocytic scarring alopecia without compromising the efficacy and anti-inflammatory benefit of the therapy,' said Carli Needle, a medical student at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

/IANS