Implications for practice  

Oral borage oil and evening primrose oil lack effect on eczema; improvement was similar to respective placebos used in trials. Oral BO and EPO are not effective treatments for eczema.
In these studies, along with the placebos, EPO and BO have the same, fairly common, mild, transient adverse effects, which are mainly gastrointestinal.
The short-term studies included here do not examine possible adverse effects of long-term use of EPO or BO. A case report warned that if EPO is taken for a prolonged period of time (more than one year), there is a potential risk of inflammation, thrombosis, and immunosuppression; another study found that EPO may increase bleeding for people on Coumadin® (warfarin) medication.

Implications for research 

Noting that the confidence intervals between active and placebo treatment are narrow, to exclude the possibility of any clinically useful difference, we concluded that further studies on EPO or BO for eczema would be hard to justify.
This review does not provide information about long-term use of these products.
[Treatment of atopic dermatitis with borage seed oil (Glandol)--a time series analytic study].
The therapy of atopic dermatitis with highly unsaturated fatty acids has witnessed a renaissance in the last years. Therefore, a study was conducted with borage oil (Glandol), rich in highly unsaturated, so-called omega fatty acids, against palm seed oil as placebo in a total of 12 patients. Evaluation of the severity of the skin changes was done by means of the ADASI (Atopic Dermatitis Area and Severity Index)-score system described by us recently. The ADASI-scores, forming a time series, were analyzed by trend analysis methods. These methods allow an evaluation of the effectiveness of the therapy in each case. The analysis revealed that five out of seven patients treated with borage oil showed a favourable effect with regard to the skin changes assessed by the ADASI-score. In contrast, only one out of the five patients treated with placebo showed a significant improvement in skin changes. In view of the positive effect ob borage oil in patients with atopic dermatitis, a trial therapy for a certain period seems justified. Our study demonstrates both the value of our ADASI-scoring system as well as the advantages that time series or trend analysis methods might have for the evaluation of therapeutic effects in chronic skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis.