Alopecia Areata in Practice: Navigating Disease Burden and the Role of JAK Inhibitors

Dismissing alopecia areata as cosmetic delays appropriate care. Dr. Ungar frames it as an inflammatory autoimmune disease and explains how severity, not scalp percentage alone, should guide the move to systemic therapy.

A patient with 45 percent hair loss and a wedding in six months illustrates why psychosocial burden can reclassify disease severity and why expectation setting must begin before treatment does.