Vitiligo, an autoimmune disorder that causes skin depigmentation, is a chronic condition. Cytotoxic T cells are thought to be the primary cause of the autoimmune process but other factors are also involved.
In addition, these immune cells were seen to be increased in vitiligo patients in one study so that the presence of these cells was positively correlated with the severity of the disease.
Keeping this in mind, because it is an autoimmune disease, therapeutic modalities that serve to modulate the immune system and immune response can provide significant support.
Unfortunately, prescribing topical immune modulating medications requires daily use and may not work for some sufferers, but is potentially dangerous for others.
One of these obstacles is the price, considering that the newest FDA-approved topical medications for vitiligo can cost up to thousands of dollars, especially if a person does not have insurance coverage.
Therefore, phototherapy provides a safe and cost-effective therapeutic means against vitiligo especially when the area affected by vitiligo is very large.
Narrowband-ultraviolet B (NB-UVB) phototherapy has emerged as a useful therapeutic strategy for conditions such as vitiligo over the past few years and can be used alone or in combination using lasers or in combination with topical or systemic agents.
How this method works is still unknown, but for now phototherapy is the fastest way to bring back skin pigment naturally.
Repigmentation can begin to appear after phototherapy for 1-2 months.