Acne scarring helped by ongoing maintenance treatment

Acne scarring is a concern for all people with acne—from those who have mild acne through to severe acne. New research has found that people who undertake maintenance therapy have avoided or at least alleviated any acne scarring.

Previous research found that 61.2% of all acne patients experience scarring.

Maintenance Therapy

Maintenance therapy involves regularly using the right medication to keep acne under control and prevent or reduce acne scars.

New Research

A recent Japanese study lasted 24 weeks. The study looked at how effective two acne treatments are at reducing scarring. The treatments are adapalene 0.1%/benzoyl peroxide 2.5% gel and benzoyl peroxide 2.5% gel.

Tanizaki et al found that patients using adapalene and benzoyl peroxide had the best results. During the study, 89.2% of these patients had 10 or fewer inflammatory lesions. Next, the group using benzoyl peroxide had 87.5% of patients with 10 or fewer inflammatory lesions.

Both groups had greater success in reducing acne scarring than the control group.

What Our Expert Says

All about Acne expert, Dr JoAnn See, says the study raises that maintenance therapy can benefit people with acne. Maintenance therapy does this by reducing both inflammatory acne lesions and the scarring that can result from acne.

Dr See recommends acne patients consider maintenance therapy after acne has cleared to avoid scarring.

Reference: Tanizaki H, Hayashi N, Abe M. Evaluation of the efficacy of maintenance therapy for acne vulgaris using adapalene 0.1%/benzoyl peroxide 2.5% gel and benzoyl peroxide 2.5%gel for 24 weeks and assessment of atrophic acne scars using three-dimensional image analysis. J Dermatol 2023;50 (12):1513-22. Doi: 10.1111/1346-8138.16942 [published Online First: 2023/09/04]