Home Interventions and Light therapy for the treatment of vitiligo (HI-LIGHT)

Vitiligo is a skin condition that causes white patches on the skin. It affects around 0.5%-1.0% of the population worldwide, both children and adults.

People with a few relatively small patches of vitiligo, and at least one patch that has appeared or has enlarged in the last 12 months, were invited to participate in the trial. In total, 517 adults and children (5+ years of age) took part across the UK.

Steroid ointment (applied to the skin) and home-based light therapy were tested in this study. These two treatments were used either by themselves or in combination, in order to see if combination treatment works better than either treatment alone. In order to prevent anyone from guessing a participant’s treatment, dummy UVB devices and placebo steroid ointment were used.

Participants judged how noticeable a ‘target’ vitiligo patch was after 9 months of treatment. Over a quarter of participants (27%) who used both treatments together said that their vitiligo was either ‘no longer noticeable’ or ‘a lot less noticeable’ after 9 months of treatment. This compared to 17% of those using steroid ointment on its own and 22% of those using NB-UVB light on its own. 

So using both treatments together was better than using steroids ointment on its own. All treatments were able to stop the vitiligo from spreading, and were relatively safe, but light treatment required a considerable time commitment (approximately 20 minutes per session, 2 to 3 times per week).

The trial also found that the vitiligo tended to return once treatments were stopped.