The distribution of acne lesions in adults is similar to that in adolescents, based on data from a prospective study of 374 women aged 25 years and older.
“The stereotype of adult female acne being due to hormonal disturbances presenting as inflammatory acne localized only to the mandibular area was not found in the majority of this large group,” noted Dr. Brigitte Dreno of Nantes (France) University and colleagues.
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons/Kinan Ayu/ Creative Commons license
Approximately 90% of the women demonstrated facial acne severity typical to that seen in adolescents, with involvement of the cheeks, forehead, temples, and mandibular area, the researchers noted. The most common presentation was mixed facial acne, with both inflammatory and noninflammatory lesions. A total of 6% of women had inflammatory acne only, with no reported noninflammatory lesions, and 17% had comedonal acne and no reported inflammatory lesions.
“We recommend that the general treatment approach for adult acne should include agents that target each of the acne lesion subtypes,” the researchers wrote.
The findings were published in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (2015;29:1096-106 [doi:10.1111/jdv.12757]).