Lasers Promise Light Relief From Teenage Misery of Acne

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by Oliver Wright
updated about 1 year ago

Times Online
October 24, 2003

ACNE, long the curse of teenagers, could be cured by a treatment first developed to iron out wrinkles, according to doctors at a London hospital. Low Level Laser Therapy normally used in private beauty salons has been tested at the Hammersmith Hospital in West London on 30 patients who were suffering mild to moderate acne.

Within 12 weeks their acne had halved, while those on a dummy treatment showed no improvement. Those with the most severe symptoms displayed the most striking improvement, mostly within the first month of treatment. This is significantly faster than most conventional antibiotic treatments, which can take as long as eight months to work.

Acne is the most common skin disease, affecting more than 90 per cent of adolescents, and a large number of people in their forties and fifties.

The study, published in today’s Lancet, showed that a single five-minute session could have a dramatic effect on acne for up to 12 months.

Doctors used a treatment called pulse dye laser therapy in which the affected area is exposed to short bursts of light. The process had been used to combat wrinkles as it is known to stimulate the production of collagen.

Tony Chu, the dermatologist who led the trial, said that it was being used on acne scarring when doctors realised that it appeared to have an effect on “live” acne as well.

“We were brought in to see if the anecdotal evidence worked in a clinical trial and we found out it was very successful,” he said. “However, we still do not know exactly how it works and that is an area we are now working on.”

Dr Chu said that the spots of one patient taking part in the trial disappeared altogether. Several others lost up to 70 or 80 per cent of their acne.

The treatment, which is already available in some private clinics, costs £300 a session. Dr Chu added that if their latest research was successful an application might be made to the National Institute for Clinical Excellence for the treatment to be covered by the NHS.

“This treatment appears to be showing the same kind of efficacy as antibiotics, but without the potential side effects,” he said. “What we need to do now is see if it works as well on acne around other parts of the body, and work out the treatment which is most clinically effective.”

In an accompanying commentary Guy Webster, a dermatologist from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, said that the treatment could well be cost-effective in the longer term. “The possibility that laser treatment is effective in acne is important in health economics terms,” he said. “Infrequent treatments that make drugs unnecessary would benefit all concerned — except drug companies,” he said.

“But more work is needed, both to confirm the clinical benefit and best regimen and to elucidate its mechanism.”

However, many patients are already enthusiastic. Rachel White, 21, from Ely, Cambridgeshire, paid for the treatment, known commercially as NLite, after antibiotics and creams failed to cure her acne. “It got quite bad sometimes,” she said. “I couldn’t go out without putting on a lot of make-up. I tried all sorts of remedies, but although they helped a bit, they didn’t really work."

“This treatment literally takes only five minutes. I got better with each treatment. Now there’s no scaling and the spots are much less prominent. On good days I don’t have any spots at all, it’s completely clear. Otherwise there’s just one or two, and they’re very small. I feel much more confident.”

© 2004 THOR International Ltd