Telogen Effluvium and COVID-19
Telogen Effluvium and COVID-19 By Sarah Taylor, PharmD There are a variety of different pathologies that can contribute to hair loss, including noncicatricial alopecia such as androgenic alopecia, alopecia areata, and telogen effluvium as well as cicatricial alopecia such as lichen planopilaris. 1 In this blog post, we’ll be focusing on telogen effluvium. Telogen effluvium may be acute or chronic. The acute form, the focus of this blog post, is defined as hair shedding that lasts for less than 6 months. Typically, this hair loss is precipitated by a stressor event that causes termination of the anagen (hair growth) phase and moves hair follicles into the telogen (resting) phase. The actual loss of hair occurs between two to three months after the trigger. 2 Potential triggers for telogen effluvium include certain medications (beta blockers, androgens, angiotensin-converting enzymes (ACE) inhibitors among others), physiologic stress, emotional stress, and even certain medi...