Evaluation of Efficacy and Safety of Lindane 1% Lotion in the Treatment of Scabies

Background: Scabies is one of the health care problems in our community and is an endemic problem at any time. Its current therapy in Iran is lindane 1% lotion, which is deleted from market in many countries because of multiple side effects and better alternatives. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and side effects of lindane in patients with scabies and to replace lindane with other safer and more effective scabicides in case of high treatment failure rates.Method: 100 patients with clinical diagnosis of scabies were treated with two lindane 1% lotions with an interval of one week. The patients were examined two and four weeks after the initial treatment in order to evaluate clinical cure. Data was analyzed with SPSS-13.Results: The mean age of the patients was 33.74 years. Of them, 52% were male and 48% were female, 60% were married and close contact was found in 100% of the patients as the route of transmission of the disease. Symptoms reduced in 75% of the patients after two times of applying lindane. Itching decreased 3 days after applying Lindane and disappeared completely on the seventh day. Fifty four percent were free of disease 28 days after treatment.Conclusion: In this study, the failure rate of treatment with lindane was relatively high; therefore, it seems necessary to think of other alternative scabicides (such as permethrin 5% cream) for the treatment of scabies. Furthermore, with accurate usage, lindane is a safe topical modality and we found no adverse effects related to lindane.