Application of a topical biomimetic electrical signaling technology to photo-aging: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of a galvanic zinc-copper complex

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Copper (Supplement).

The first signs of facial skin photo-aging often occur in the skin of the periorbital area and include sagging, loss of firmness and definition, and sallowness.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, women only.

In this eight-week study, women (40-65 years) with mild to moderate photo-aging were randomized to use placebo or 1 of 3 galvanic zinc-copper complex compositions (gel and activating moisturizer).

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Copper (Supplement) study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Copper (Supplement), so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Copper (Supplement) could be set against what happens without it.

Tolerability was based on adverse events and clinical grading of irritation.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Administration, Cutaneous, Biomimetic Materials, Copper, Drug Combinations, Electromagnetic Fields, Galvanic Skin Response and Skin Aging.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Copper (Supplement).

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2012 (Journal of drugs in dermatology : JDD), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Copper (Supplement) compound page, all human trials.