Probiotics for the Treatment of Atopic Dermatitis in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Huang, R., Ning, H., Shen, M., Li, J., Zhang, J., & Chen, X. (2017). Probiotics for the Treatment of Atopic Dermatitis in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology, 7, 392. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2017.00392

2. Article – Probiotics for Atopic dermatitis

Summary:

Atopic dermatitis (AD), is one of the most common chronic inflammatory skin disorders among infants and children. Infants and children with AD are typically treated with topical corticosteroids, antihistamines, and even antibiotics. However, these medications exert several adverse side effects, and AD symptoms may recur rapidly after treatment is stopped. Probiotics is becoming increasingly attractive as a treatment option for some illnesses in children. Probiotics (live bacteria or yeasts) are not necessarily harmless, but they help to protect hosts from harmful bacteria. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of probiotics used to treat AD in children.

This is a systematic review and meta-analysis published in 2017 with 13 trials. Data from 1,070 children (intervention group, 553; control group, 517) were assessed.

Results:

• The SCORAD (Scoring atopic dermatitis) is the severity score used for atopic dermatitis. SCORAD was commonly used to measure the efficacy of probiotics in children with AD.
• The data shows that significantly higher SCORAD values favoring probiotics over controls were observed. The reported efficacy of probiotics was higher in children 1-18 years old (−4.50) than in children < 1 year old (−1.03).
• Subgroup analyses showed that in Europe, SCORAD revealed no effect of probiotics, whereas significantly lower SCORAD values were reported in Asia.
• Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and Lactobacillus plantarum showed no significant effect on SCORAD values in children with AD. However, Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus salivarius, and a mixture of different strains showed significant effects on SCORAD values in children with AD.

In conclusion, this meta-analysis indicated that the probiotics may have the potential to decrease SCORAD values in children with AD. Since the research to date has not robustly shown that probiotics are beneficial for children with AD, randomized controlled trials with larger samples and greater power are necessary to identify the species, dose, and treatment duration of probiotics that are most efficacious for treating AD in children.