The Barbie drug that has been in the news lately does not help with vitiligo. In fact, the drug poses risks.

Newspapers and the internet report about a new substance that makes you tan: Melatonan, also known as the Barbie drug. Because it gives you such a beautiful tan, just like Barbie. Vitiligo patients always perk up at such messages: this is useful to us too, because we want our brown skin back! Unfortunately, we also have to disappoint you in this case. It's better to stay away from it, because the side effects are not minor. Moreover, it is highly questionable whether vitiligo patients also get tan from it.

Party scene
The LVVP has asked the experts in the vitiligo working group of the Pigment Domain Group of the Dutch Society for Dermatology and Venereology, in which dermatologists consult with each other. They indicated that this concerns the drug afamelanotide in combination with UVB. In the party scene it is used in combination with a tanning bed to get a tan very quickly. It will not be of much benefit to people with vitiligo, because there still need to be pigment cells in the skin to have an effect: those pigment cells are activated. The problem with vitiligo is that the pigment cells in the white areas have disappeared.

Risks
Apart from that, there are also reports that this Barbie drug carries many risks. It could give you skin cancer. In addition, a warning is issued about fake products. You order it on the internet in powder form, and powders are always easy to mix with something else.

As LVVP we can only conclude: be wise and stay away from the Barbie drug!

Also read:

https://spuitenenslikken.bnn.nl/nieuws/artikel/844/im-a-barbie-girl

and

https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/editienl/barbie-drug-opkomst-bruin-door-een-spuit