Actual acne treatment lasts longer than studies suggest

MIAMI BEACH – In practice, acne patients are treated three times longer than clinical trials suggest, based on data from more than 2,000 patients at an academic medical center.

The findings have implications both for setting patients’ treatment expectations and for designing future clinical trials, said Karen Huang of Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C., said at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Ms. Huang and her colleagues reviewed electronic records for patients who were treated at an academic medical practice between Jan. 1, 2009, and Nov. 15, 2012. Overall, 2,250 patients had at least one acne-related visit with a dermatologist. Of these, 57% had only one visit and 43% had multiple visits.

For patients who had multiple visits, the mean duration of treatment from the first to the last visit was approximately 9 months (0.79 years). Approximately 25% continued seeing their dermatologists for about a year, and half continued treatment for nearly 5 months (0.4 years).

Not unexpectedly, patients treated with oral medication, including isotretinoin and other oral treatments, were more likely than those treated with topical medications to have multiple visits. In addition, the number of visits by patients who received isotretinoin slowed gradually at first, then declined more rapidly over time compared with patients who received topical treatments.

Approximately 90% of individuals experience acne during their lifetimes, but the actual duration of acne episodes has not been well characterized in the literature, said Ms. Huang. The duration of treatment seen in 40 recent studies of acne treatment identified at clinicaltrials.gov was about 12 weeks, she added.

The current findings represent a lower limit on the duration of acne treatment because of a lack of data on which patients may have discontinued treatment prematurely or continued treatment elsewhere, such as with a primary care physician, she said.

The study findings may be of interest not only for clinical trial design (in that researchers might want to simulate average treatment duration), but also for physicians who want to set realistic expectations about treatment for their patients.

"It has been shown that if you help set patients’ expectations of what their treatment will be like, it may help improve adherence," she said.

Ms. Huang had no financial conflicts to disclose.

MIAMI BEACH – In practice, acne patients are treated three times longer than clinical trials suggest, based on data from more than 2,000 patients at an academic medical center.

The findings have implications both for setting patients’ treatment expectations and for designing future clinical trials, said Karen Huang of Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C., said at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Ms. Huang and her colleagues reviewed electronic records for patients who were treated at an academic medical practice between Jan. 1, 2009, and Nov. 15, 2012. Overall, 2,250 patients had at least one acne-related visit with a dermatologist. Of these, 57% had only one visit and 43% had multiple visits.

For patients who had multiple visits, the mean duration of treatment from the first to the last visit was approximately 9 months (0.79 years). Approximately 25% continued seeing their dermatologists for about a year, and half continued treatment for nearly 5 months (0.4 years).

Not unexpectedly, patients treated with oral medication, including isotretinoin and other oral treatments, were more likely than those treated with topical medications to have multiple visits. In addition, the number of visits by patients who received isotretinoin slowed gradually at first, then declined more rapidly over time compared with patients who received topical treatments.

Approximately 90% of individuals experience acne during their lifetimes, but the actual duration of acne episodes has not been well characterized in the literature, said Ms. Huang. The duration of treatment seen in 40 recent studies of acne treatment identified at clinicaltrials.gov was about 12 weeks, she added.

The current findings represent a lower limit on the duration of acne treatment because of a lack of data on which patients may have discontinued treatment prematurely or continued treatment elsewhere, such as with a primary care physician, she said.

The study findings may be of interest not only for clinical trial design (in that researchers might want to simulate average treatment duration), but also for physicians who want to set realistic expectations about treatment for their patients.

"It has been shown that if you help set patients’ expectations of what their treatment will be like, it may help improve adherence," she said.

Ms. Huang had no financial conflicts to disclose.

MIAMI BEACH – In practice, acne patients are treated three times longer than clinical trials suggest, based on data from more than 2,000 patients at an academic medical center.

The findings have implications both for setting patients’ treatment expectations and for designing future clinical trials, said Karen Huang of Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C., said at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Ms. Huang and her colleagues reviewed electronic records for patients who were treated at an academic medical practice between Jan. 1, 2009, and Nov. 15, 2012. Overall, 2,250 patients had at least one acne-related visit with a dermatologist. Of these, 57% had only one visit and 43% had multiple visits.

For patients who had multiple visits, the mean duration of treatment from the first to the last visit was approximately 9 months (0.79 years). Approximately 25% continued seeing their dermatologists for about a year, and half continued treatment for nearly 5 months (0.4 years).

Not unexpectedly, patients treated with oral medication, including isotretinoin and other oral treatments, were more likely than those treated with topical medications to have multiple visits. In addition, the number of visits by patients who received isotretinoin slowed gradually at first, then declined more rapidly over time compared with patients who received topical treatments.

Approximately 90% of individuals experience acne during their lifetimes, but the actual duration of acne episodes has not been well characterized in the literature, said Ms. Huang. The duration of treatment seen in 40 recent studies of acne treatment identified at clinicaltrials.gov was about 12 weeks, she added.

The current findings represent a lower limit on the duration of acne treatment because of a lack of data on which patients may have discontinued treatment prematurely or continued treatment elsewhere, such as with a primary care physician, she said.

The study findings may be of interest not only for clinical trial design (in that researchers might want to simulate average treatment duration), but also for physicians who want to set realistic expectations about treatment for their patients.

"It has been shown that if you help set patients’ expectations of what their treatment will be like, it may help improve adherence," she said.

Ms. Huang had no financial conflicts to disclose.