Research · Systematic review
Interventions for prevention of herpes simplex labialis (cold sores on the lips)
What it found
Found no evidence of efficacy for lysine in preventing recurrent cold sores, and rated the overall evidence as very low quality.
- Design
- Systematic review
- Year
- 2015
- Sample size
- 2,640
- Population
- immunocompetent people with recurrent cold sores (32 RCTs)
- Intervention
- oral lysine and other preventive interventions vs placebo
- Outcome
- prevention of cold-sore recurrence
- Journal
- Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
Citation last checked 2026-06-21.