THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ACNE TREATMENT - AN ASSESSMENT BY PATIENTS OF THE OUTCOME OF THERAPY

The impact of acne on quality of life can be profound, Although treatm ent improves the clinical features of acne, there is little informatio n on its benefit from the patients' point of view, In this study, pati ents with acne referred to a dermatology clinic were sent questionnair es before being seen, and 4 and 12 months afterwards. Clinical severit y was assessed by a dermatologist at baseline and at 4 months, Quality of life was assessed by patients using the Short Form 36 instrument ( SF-36), the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), Rosenberg's measure of self-esteem and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). Of 90 a vailable patients, 79 (89%) returned at least one follow-up questionna ire, The clinical acne grade improved substantially with treatment, Th ere were also significant improvements either at 4 or 12 months in the DLQI, self-esteem, GHQ-28 and all five dimensions of the SF-36 that w ere impaired at baseline, Quality of life continued to improve between the 4- and 12-month follow-up questionnaires. Clinical and patient-as sessed outcomes were significantly better in patients treated with iso tretinoin, The study showed that disability caused by acne can be larg ely reversed by effective treatment. It also showed that patient-asses sed measures of outcome can respond to changes over time and discrimin ate between treatments differing in effectiveness.