THE TREATMENT OF ACNE WITH TOPICAL RETINOIDS - ONE MANS OPINIONS

Acne is a family of disorders that vary greatly in pathogenesis and cl inical manifestation. Accordingly, no simple recipe for treatment can be given, and treatment options vary with the stage and intensity of t he disease. Topical retinoids are the mainstay for treating common var ieties of acne vulgaris. They also prevent development of comedones, h alting progression to inflammatory lesions. Tretinoin was the first re tinoid used in the topical treatment of acne more than 25 years ago. I sotretinoin, which has recently become available, is less irritating, but is probably somewhat less effective, Adapalene is a recently intro duced topical retinoid used to treat acne. It enjoys therapeutic equiv alence to tretinoin but is less irritating. Except for very mild acne cases, topical retinoids should be used concommitantly with other drug s. The operating principle is to choose drugs whose modes of action ar e different from topical retinoids. that is, antibiotics or benzoyl pe roxide. Topical retinoids, however, constitute the core of nearly all therapeutic programs for acne.