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.
[Gamma-linolenic-acid-rich borage seed oil capsules in children with atopic dermatitis. A placebo-controlled double-blind study].
We investigated the effect of gamma-linolenic-acid from borage seed on atopic dermatitis of children. In a placebo-controlled, double-blind manner we studied 24 patients, 3-17 years old. Every patient received 360 mg of gamma-linolenic acid daily, independent from sex and age; the same amount of corn seed-oil served as placebo. After 10 to 14 weeks of treatment there was no improvement of the eczema in the verum phase compared to placebo. Both groups showed improvement while taking placebo. This result could be seen in the objective investigations (Costa-Score, 3 times per treatment period) as well as in the daily patients documentation. The patients whose eczema has improved under borage seed-oil (n = 10) had no special characteristics, so that we could not identify any responder-type.