Introduction: Scabies is a common public health problem. In many resource-poor settings, scabies is an endemic problem; whereas in industrialised countries, it is most common in institutionalised communities.
Methods and outcomes: We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: What are the effects of topical treatments for scabies? What are the effects of systemic treatments for scabies? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to July 2013 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically; please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Results: We found five studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.
Conclusions: In this systematic review, we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: benzyl benzoate (topical), crotamiton (topical), ivermectin (oral), malathion (topical), permethrin (topical), and sulfur compounds (topical).