When it comes to managing acne, new guidelines from the American Academy of Dermatology rate the existing evidence as "strong" for topical benzoyl peroxide, retinoids, and/or antibiotics and their fixed-dose combinations, as well as the use of oral isotretinoin for severe forms of the condition. The guidelines also conditionally recommend the use of topical clascoterone, salicylic acid, azelaic acid, oral minocycline, sarecycline, combined oral contraceptives, and spironolactone.
The development updates the AAD's 2016 guidelines for managing acne. "Since there have been several important new treatments introduced since the prior guidelines, it was determined that there was a need to update these guidelines," John S. Barbieri, MD, MBA, who cochaired a 16-member multidisciplinary work group that assembled the guidelines, told this news organization.
For the new guidelines, which were published online January 30, 2023, in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Dr Barbieri, a dermatologist who directs the Advanced Acne Therapeutics Clinic at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, guidelines cochair Rachel V. Reynolds, MD, a dermatologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, and colleagues conducted a systematic review of evidence regarding the management of acne. Next, the work group applied the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach for assessing the certainty of the evidence and formulating and grading clinical recommendations based on relevant randomized trials in the medical literature.
In all, the work group made 18 recommendations and five good practice statements. They ranked seven of the recommendations as "strong" based on the evidence reviewed and the rest as "conditional." The "strong" recommendations include the use of benzoyl peroxide, the use of topical retinoids, the use of topical antibiotics, a fixed dose of a combination topical antibiotic with benzoyl peroxide, a fixed dose of a combination topical retinoid with topical antibiotic, a fixed dose combination of a topical retinoid with benzoyl peroxide, and the use of doxycycline.
"Conditional" recommendations include those for the use of clascoterone, salicylic acid, azelaic acid, minocycline, sarecycline, and doxycycline over azithromycin and combined oral contraceptive pills, spironolactone, and, for patients with severe acne, traditional daily dosing of isotretinoin over intermittent dosing of isotretinoin.
Meanwhile, good clinical practice statements contained in the document include using topical therapies combining multiple mechanisms of action, limiting systemic antibiotic use, combining topical and systemic antibiotics with benzoyl peroxide and other topical therapies, and adjuvant intralesional corticosteroid injections.
In Dr Barbieri's opinion, the recommendations regarding clascoterone and sarecycline represent important developments. "Clascoterone is the first FDA-approved treatment that can address hormonal causes of acne in both men and women," he told this news organization. "Sarecycline is a narrow-spectrum tetracycline that might have some advantages over other tetracyclines such as doxycycline and minocycline. It will be important to payers to provide coverage to ensure that patients have access to these valuable new treatments."
Dr Barbieri added that while no evidence exists to suggest that minocycline is more effective than doxycycline, minocycline can be associated with rare but serious side effects, such as vestibular dysfunction, autoimmune hepatitis, drug-induced lupus, and drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS). "We should consider whether reducing use of minocycline might be beneficial to our overall care of patients with acne," he said. "In addition, we discuss that use of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole should be limited due to risk of severe adverse reactions such as Stevens-Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis, and acute respiratory failure."
Another highlight of the guidelines, he continued, are specific recommendations for young, healthy patients on isotretinoin or spironolactone, which "can help clinicians and patients who are interested in less frequent monitoring feel more comfortable with these approaches," he said.
Many discussions among work group members dealt with how to best implement the GRADE approach to the project "while ensuring the guidelines were as clinically relevant and actionable as possible," according to Dr Barbieri. "I think an important issue going forward will be to consider how to update and modify the GRADE approach to fit the unique needs of creating evidence-based guidelines for the management of skin disease."
The work group acknowledged limitations of the guidelines, including identification of "important evidence gaps on the use of microbiology and endocrinology testing in acne, the use of systemic antibiotics beyond tetracycline-class antibiotics, physical modalities, complementary and alternative therapies, dietary interventions for the treatment of acne, and cost-effectiveness of acne treatments," they wrote. "RCTs with long-term follow-up and comparative effectiveness research are necessary to examine and compare patient-centered acne treatment outcomes."
The AAD funded the project. Dr Barbieri disclosed that he serves as investigator for the National Institutes of Health and the National Psoriasis Foundation. Many coauthors reported being a speaker for and/or a consultant and advisory board member to many pharmaceutical companies.
This article originally appeared on MDedge.com, part of the Medscape Professional Network.
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