August 4, 1999 – In the newest issue of the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, W. Steven Pray, Professor of Non-Prescription Products and Devices at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, writes about resistant lice and warns about the lack of safeguards for alternative products. He discusses the wide variety of commonly used chemical products and describes Lindane, a cyclodiene pesticide, as the most toxic pediculicide available.
Given the inadequacies of a chemical approach to controlling head lice, Professor Pray recommends thorough combing as the emerging treatment of choice and instructs pharmacists to “shift in the new millennium to thorough combing with a highly effective comb such as the LiceMeister®.”
Professor Pray strongly advises against unproven head lice remedies until sufficient data proving safety and efficacy is approved by the FDA, noting in addition to other issues, that “Patients suffer a false sense of security that allows the head louse population to increase unchecked.” Pray’s detailed article is entitled “Head Lice: Perfectly Adapted Human Predators, American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education,” Vol 63, Summer/99.
W. Steven Pray, Ph.D., R.Ph. is author of the new textbook standard on Nonprescription Product Therapeutics — available through Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.