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Informative Articles

Acne -- Prevention And Treatment
Acne is a non-lethal but very uncomfortable skin condition that mainly effects people aged between 12 and 24 but which can effect adults also. It is the most common skin affliction in the United States, it has strong psychological effects as it...

Baby Acne
Much to many parents dismay, baby acne is very common. The hormones that are transferred from mother to baby at birth and with breastfeeding can sometimes cause this annoying but painless condition. Baby acne usually appears as small whiteheads on...

Bulimia eating disorder
Eating disorders might seem a negligible factor in their early stages, but they can develop over time and produce numerous negative effects to our bodies. Understanding the symptoms of the bulimia eating disorder is essential if you wish to have...

Cure Acne With A Natural Health Remedy
If you have acne, you might feel like there is nothing else you wouldn't rather have in place of it. And with the acne scarring that comes afterward, it is no wonder that so many people find themselves desperately jumping from one product to...

Diet as a natural treatment for acne
Since the skin is the largest organ on the body and it assists other major organs in the human body with eliminating waste, one of the best acne treatments is diet which has many home remedies for acne in the foods that we eat. If you are...

Facial Rejuvenation: Plastic Surgery and Beyond
It is no surprise that we live in a youth-oriented culture. It seems that every year the standard of beauty to which we are all exposed and aspire, gets younger and younger at the same time that Americans are growing older. Because of the...

Laser: The Ultimate Acne Terminator?
Acne is really a big deal to anyone that suffers from it! It is major problem for almost all the teenagers, not only in this country, but also in all parts of the globe. Everyone wants to get rid of it! In fact, there is a wide variety of things...

Taking the pimples out of PMS
“Dammit!” shrieks Shelly. Gazing into the morning mirror, Shelly sizing up the latest addition to her face, an anticipated, though uninvited pimple loitering on her chin. “It’s like freaking clockwork.” Ironically, these pimples do arrive like...

The Stages of Syphilis.
Without treatment, the sexually transmitted disease , (STD), syphilis in adults progresses through four stages; primary, secondary, latent and tertiary. An infected person can easily pass the disease to a sexual partner when first- or...

Your Most Important Cosmetic
Article - Your Most Important Cosmetic? Sunblock by a mile! Are you a skin care junkie? Is your bathroom closet overflowing with bottles and jars? Does the content of these bottles and jars actually do anything to improve your skin? My guess is...

 
 
 
Spironolactone in the treatment of acne

In his article on acne published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine James (1) mentions that androgen antagonist spironolacton is often useful in women with hyperandrogenism. However, it would be important to point out, that the effectiveness of this treatment cannot be determined due to the small sample populations involved in the trials, as has been shown in recent metaanalysis. (2) It should be also emphasized that although the long-term use of spironolactone in the treatment of acne in women appears to be safe, its side-effects seem to be high. (3) On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that spironolactone in addition to its antiandrogenic effects might also have antiinflammatory potential. (4) This emphasizes the need for further properly designed trials with relevant outcomes to provide robust estimates of the size and mechanism of any treatment effects. Because of its long half-life spironolactone should be given once daily and not in divided doses as recommended by James. This might

 


increase the compliance which is important in prolonged therapy to achieve maximal benefits. (5)


1. James WD. Clinical practice. Acne. N Engl J Med 2005;352:1463-72.

2. Farquhar C, Lee O, Toomath R, Jepson R. Spironolactone versus placebo or in combination with steroids for hirsutism and/or acne. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2003;(4):CD000194.

3. Shaw JC, White LE. Long-term safety of spironolactone in acne: results of an 8-year followup study. J Cutan Med Surg 2002;6:541-5.

4. Hansen PR, Rieneck K, Bendtzen K. Spironolactone inhibits production of proinflammatory cytokines by human mononuclear cells. Immunol Lett 2004;91:87-91.

5. McEvoy B, Nydegger R, Williams G. Factors related to patient compliance in the treatment of acne vulgaris. Int J Dermatol 2003;42:274-80.


About the author:

Dr. Michal R. Pijak is a consultant in rheumatology, allergy and clinical immunology at the University Hospital in Bratislava, Slovakia.