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CompletedNCT05362513Updated May 5, 2022

Comparative Study Between Topical Permethrin 5% and Oral Ivermectin for the Treatment of Scabies

A Phase 1 interventional study of Ivermectin Tablets and Permethrin Cream in Scabies, sponsored by Combined Military Hospital Abbottabad. Completed at 1 site in Pakistan. Open to participants aged 3 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-05-05.

Sponsored by Combined Military Hospital Abbottabad · Phase 1, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 10 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Jun 2021, registered Apr 2022).
Phase
Phase 1
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
100
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
3 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Globally, Scabies infects 300m people each year. In children of developing countries, its prevalence is expected to be about 5 to 10%.In Pakistan, Scabies accounts for 38% of dermatological diseases. Males were more prone to infestation than females, and early school-aged children were the most vulnerable. It was more widespread in urban than in rural areas. A distinct seasonal pattern emerged, with the biggest infestation occurring in the winter and the lowest in the summer. Scabies risk factors estimated 89% of the variation in its prevalence.

The classic scabies symptoms include an erythematous papular eruption, burrows, and intense itching. It is usually transmitted by prolonged skin-skin contact. Predilection sites are fingers, axilla, elbows, waist, belly, groin, genital area, etc. Classic scabies can be diagnosed by proper taking history and clinical symptoms. Some of the clinical variations of scabies are Crusted, nodular, and bullous. On examination under a microscope of scrapings collected from skin lesions, finding the mites, eggs, confirms the infestation of scabies .

Topical permethrin and oral ivermectin are the medications of choice for scabies mite elimination. Topical Permethrin 5% applied for 9-14 hours for adults than for children only 8-9 hours. Permethrin 5% only single dose is enough but the second dose can be applied after an interval of 2 weeks if the etiology is still there. Ivermectin is now used to treat scabies, with an effective dosage of 150 to 200 μg/kg given once or may give twice after interval of two weeks. The positives include a single dosage and improved compliance in resistant infestations and situations where head-to-toe topical administration is logistically problematic, such as huge outbreaks or mentally impaired individuals. Fever, arthralgia, myalgia, dizziness, headache, hypotension, tachycardia, and lymphadenopathy have all been reported as adverse effects. There have also been reports of a prolonged prothrombin time, a transient EKG, and variations in liver enzymes.

The study's implications are to analyze the safety and efficacy of these two drugs in order to better treat patients with evidence-based management and rule out any potential adverse effects.

Read the detailed description

A randomized controlled trial study (single-blind) was done In the Dermatology Unit of the CMH, Abbottabad from June to November 2021 after Ethical Review Board approval, the 100 patients aged 5-80 years after informed consent were enrolled using a technique of non-probability consecutive sampling. The sample size for two proportions was determined using the WHO sample size calculator, with a threshold of significance of 5%. The anticipated population proportion P1 was 80%, while the anticipated population proportion P2 was 46.6% 12. The sample size was calculated to be 100.

02

Conditions studied

  • Scabies

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Keywords

  • Permethrin 5%
  • scabies
  • ivermectin
03

In context

Scabies

51 studies on the registry are indexed under Scabies; 10 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 100 is below the median of 183 across 41 interventional studies indexed under Scabies.

Browse Scabies studies →

Lead sponsor

Combined Military Hospital Abbottabad is the lead sponsor of 25 studies on the registry; 3 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
3 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • More than 2 years
  • More than 15kg of body weight
  • attended the Dermatology department

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients under the age of two years
  • pregnant
  • breastfeeding women
  • those with a background of seizures, severe symptoms of systemic illnesses,
  • diseases,
  • Norwegian scabies
  • those who had taken any topical or systemic acaricide medication for one month before the trial
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(1)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 1
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
100 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Group A(permethrin topical)

    Group A received Permethrin 5% twice with a one-week interval, whereas Group B received a single dose of oral ivermectin 200 mcg per kg.

    Drug: Permethrin Cream

  • Active comparator
    Group B oral ivermectin

    Group A received Permethrin 5% twice with a one-week interval, whereas Group B received a single dose of oral ivermectin 200 mcg per kg

    Drug: Ivermectin Tablets

Interventions

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Complete clearance (outcome assessment at 7 and 14 days post initiation of treatment)

    For randomization, the final recruited 100 participants (57 females and 43 men; mean+SD age 35.28+18.51 years, range 5 to 80), randomly assigned to one of two groups i.e. Group A received Permethrin 5% twice with a one-week interval, whereas Group B received a single dose of oral ivermectin 200 mcg per kg. They were instructed not to take any antipruritic or topical medicine. The recruited patients were evaluated and assessed clinically at 2-4-week intervals after treatment by the experienced practitioners who were blinded to the treatment received, in accordance with the criteria described while recruiting the patients.

    Time frame: 2 weeks

Secondary outcomes

  1. ADVERSE EFECTS OF DRUGS

    Skin itching, swelling, and erythema can happen with scabies patients and may exacerbate following permethrin therapy, Mild stinging or burning might occur as a result of the absorption of dead parasite proteins .

    Time frame: 2 weeks

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Combined military hospital
    Abbottābād, Kpk, Pakistan
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Ranjkesh MR, Naghili B, Goldust M, Rezaee E. The efficacy of permethrin 5% vs. oral ivermectin for the treatment of scabies. Ann Parasitol. 2013;59(4):189-94. PubMed 24791346 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on May 5, 2022, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05362513
Lead sponsor
Combined Military Hospital Abbottabad
Responsible party
Naheed khan (principal investigator, Combined Military Hospital Abbottabad) — Principal investigator
First posted
May 5, 2022
Start date
Jun 1, 2021
Primary completion
Nov 30, 2021
Completion
Nov 30, 2021
Last update
May 5, 2022

Study contacts

Naheed Khan, MBBS
principal investigator · Cpsp

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is completed, as verified in Apr 2022. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Studies of the drugs tested here: Ivermectin · Permethrin

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