Acne treatments

What are the treatment aims and options for acne?

There are different types of treatment that work in different ways. A doctor will be able to tailor-make the treatment for your skin.

You may prefer not to treat mild acne which is not inflamed - that is, if you just have blackheads and/or whiteheads (comedones) and mild pimples. Mild acne is common and usually goes in time, without scarring. However, inflamed acne can scar. If you develop inflammation, such as redness, red spots or pustules, it is best to treat them early to prevent scarring. Treatment will usually clear most spots if you use it properly. However, be realistic: skin takes a few weeks to improve, so you may not notice any difference at first. Also, most acne treatments need to be taken for three months to have their full effect.

Topical preparations for acne

Various gels, lotions and creams are used to treat acne. As you can imagine, there are plenty of acne treatments to buy. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't and it is quite easy to build up a large collection of creams that sit in your bathroom cabinet and have cost a lot of money, but don't seem to help your spots. It's often worth asking your doctor about your acne before buying things: getting the right treatment from the start can save a lot of time and money.

Benzoyl peroxide

Benzoyl peroxide is a common topical treatment. It has three actions - it kills germs (bacteria), reduces inflammation and helps to unplug blocked pores. Therefore, it often works well to clear inflamed spots and it helps to clear blackheads and whiteheads (comedones). You can buy benzoyl peroxide at pharmacies, without a prescription. There are lots of brand names for it and it comes in different strengths - there is a 2.5%, 4%, 5% and 10% strength. Benzoyl peroxide:

• Works best if you wash the skin 20-30 minutes before use.

• May bleach hair, bed linen, or clothes that come into contact with it.

• Commonly causes mild skin irritation. If your skin does become irritated then stop using it until the irritation goes. Then try again with a lower strength, or reduce the time it is left on your skin before washing off. To prevent skin irritation, the following may help:

  • Most people can tolerate the 5% preparation but if it irritates then try the 2.5% once the irritation settles. If you wish to increase the strength, do it gradually.

  • Use a water-based preparation (rather than an alcohol-based one).

  • Apply once daily at first and wash off after several hours.

  • Gradually increase the length of time left on the skin.

  • Aim to put it on twice daily when you get used to it.

Retinoids

Retinoids are good at unplugging blocked pores. They include adapalene, tretinoin and isotretinoin which come in various brand names. They also have some effect on reducing inflammation. Therefore, one is often used early on in acne to help to unblock pores and to treat blackheads, whiteheads and mildly inflamed spots. You need a prescription for all retinoid preparations: you can't buy them in the shops. When you use a topical retinoid:

• You may develop some skin redness and skin peeling. This tends to settle over time.

• The spots sometimes become a little worse before improving.

• Your skin may be more sensitive to sunlight. Therefore, it is best to apply it at night.

• A sun protection cream may also help if you are out in the sun.

• The most common side-effects are burning, irritation and dryness. Therefore, you may be advised at first to use a low-strength, less frequent application and for a shorter duration.

• You should not be pregnant, or intend to become pregnant, when you use a topical retinoid as there is a slight risk of harm to unborn babies. Discuss contraception with your doctor if necessary.

Topical antibiotics

There are various topical antibiotic preparations. They are great at treating acne on the back or chest: places where it's not practical to put lots of cream. They reduce the number of bacteria and reduce inflammation. However, they have little effect on unplugging blocked pores. So, they are usually good at treating inflamed acne but blackheads and whiteheads may remain. You need a prescription to obtain a topical antibiotic. They may cause mild irritation but generally cause fewer side-effects than the other topical preparations. Topical antibiotics are usually prescribed in combination with other medicines (see below). Antibiotics often take quite a few weeks, if not months, to work fully. It's sometimes worth sticking with one for at least two months before changing.

Azelaic acid

Azelaic acid is an alternative to benzoyl peroxide that mainly works by unplugging blocked pores. So, like retinoids, it is good at clearing blackheads and whiteheads. It has some effect on reducing inflamed acne too but probably not as much as antibiotics or benzoyl peroxide. However, it may cause less skin irritation than benzoyl peroxide. You can buy azelaic acid in the shops.

Combinations

Some preparations contain a mixture of ingredients. For example, benzoyl peroxide plus an antibiotic is commonly used; benzoyl peroxide and adapalene; or a retinoid plus an antibiotic. These may work better than either ingredient alone.

Light therapy

There are some new treatments that use 'light' to treat acne. You can buy 'light therapy boxes' to use at home. Although there are a lot of online articles about how good they are, the scientific research doesn't prove them to be that good at the moment (apart from 'blue light' for mild acne). They may be a good treatment in the future though.

Tablets that can treat acne

Antibiotic tablets

Antibiotics work by killing germs (bacteria) that contribute to the cause of acne. They also have a direct effect of reducing inflammation. Antibiotics usually work well to clear inflamed acne spots and any surrounding skin inflammation.

However, they have little effect on unplugging blocked pores - which you can see as blackheads and whiteheads (comedones). So, if you only have mild acne with just blackheads and whiteheads, you are better off using a topical treatment that unblocks holes in the skin (pores). If you have a lot of blackheads and whiteheads as well as inflamed acne spots, you may be advised to use a topical treatment, such as benzoyl peroxide, in addition to taking an antibiotic tablet. Using a topical treatment as well as an antibiotic can reduce the chance that the germs become resistant to the antibiotics.

Always read the leaflet that is in the packet of antibiotics. Things such as precautions and possible side-effects vary between antibiotics. The following are some general points.

Tetracycline-based antibiotics are the most commonly used antibiotics to treat acne. These include: oxytetracycline, tetracycline, doxycycline and lymecycline.

• Children aged under 12 years should not take tetracycline-based antibiotics because it damages their teeth.

• Do not take tetracycline-based antibiotics if you are pregnant, breastfeeding or intend to become pregnant. Discuss contraception with your doctor if necessary.

• Food and milk affect the absorption of oxytetracycline or tetracycline. Therefore, take these tablets on an empty stomach, between meals, with a glass of water (not milk). Doxycycline and lymecycline can be taken with food.

Other antibiotics that are sometimes used include erythromycin and trimethoprim. You may be advised to take one of these if one of the above has not worked well or is unsuitable.

This photo shows someone with acne on their back. It would be hard to put cream on every day here, so antibiotic tablets might be a good treatment:

Acne on the back

By James Heilman, MD (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons

The pill (a hormone treatment)

The combined contraceptive pill (the pill) may help some women if their acne seems to be partly related to their hormonal changes - for example, acne that flares up around the time of a period. It is the oestrogen part of the pill that is thought to help. A variety of the pill called co-cyprindiol may be especially useful for acne and is the only contraceptive pill licensed for it, but has not been shown to be any more effective than other contraceptive pills.

Isotretinoin tablets

Isotretinoin greatly reduces the amount of oil (sebum) made by your sebaceous glands. It works very well and usually clears spots even in severe cases. However, it is used only on the advice of a specialist after other treatments have been tried first. This is because it can have side-effects like cracking of the lips and very dry skin. It used to be thought that isotretinoin tablets can cause depression in teenagers, but in fact this has never been proven. It is harmful to the unborn baby if you are pregnant and so if you are a woman taking isotretinoin you will have to be very careful not to get pregnant.

How long is treatment needed?

Whatever treatment is used, it is normal to take up to four weeks for there to be any improvement that you can see. There is often a good response to treatment by six weeks. However, it can take up to four months (sometimes longer) for maximum response to a treatment and for the skin to be generally free of spots. Note: the most common reason for a treatment failure is because some people think that treatment is not working after a couple of weeks or so and give up.

Try to continue with any treatment for at least six weeks before deciding if it is working. If there is no improvement after six weeks of taking a treatment regularly and correctly, do not despair. Adding in another treatment or a change to a different or more powerful treatment will usually be advised and is likely to work. Although treatment can usually clear most spots, there is no treatment that will make your skin perfect and the odd spot may remain: be realistic.

Will acne return after treatment?

Once the spots have cleared, acne commonly flares up again if you stop treatment. So it is common to carry on with a maintenance treatment to prevent acne from flaring up again. It is common to need maintenance treatment for 4-5 years to keep acne away. This is typically until the late teens or early 20s.

Maintenance treatment is usually with either benzoyl peroxide or a topical retinoid. These can both be used indefinitely. The dose used to prevent spots from returning is often lower than that used to treat acne. For example, one application to the skin every other day with a low-strength preparation is all you may need to keep spots from returning.

Antibiotics, either in tablet form or in a gel or cream, should not be used for too long. This is because long-term use of antibiotics can lead to resistance of germs to the antibiotics. Azelaic acid, another topical treatment, is only licensed for treatment periods of six months. So if at first you are treated with an antibiotic or azelaic acid, you may be advised to switch to benzoyl peroxide or a topical retinoid for maintenance treatment once the spots have died down.

Does acne ever need hospital treatment?

If you have severe acne which doesn't respond to the treatments prescribed by your family doctor, you may need to see a hospital specialist. This is particularly if your doctor believes you would be helped by isotretinoin tablets, which aren't usually prescribed by family doctors. You may need hospital treatment for acne scars. Options available for scarring include laser resurfacing of the skin, mechanical or chemical peeling of the skin, breaking the scar tissue down with a sterile needle (subcision) and injection of collagen filler. There are plenty of private clinics around that provide these new treatments, but be warned: they are expensive. Try to get the opinion of an impartial doctor in a state-funded system like the NHS before having anything done in a private clinic.