Younger age, male gender, and living in an urban area increase the likelihood of acne relapse among first-time isotretinoin users. A recent study from Canada established this fact with sufficient evidences.

Acne

Anick Bérard and his colleagues at University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, performed a nested case-control analysis to determine the predictors of acne relapse. Researchers took help of a population-based data of 17,351 first-time isotretinoin recipients assembled between 1984 and 2003.

A complete report containing all relevant details has been published recently in the British Journal of Dermatology. The authors write, “Several patient characteristics have been found to be associated with acne relapses“.

The study results demonstrated that the ‘Relapse’, which is the receipt of a second anti-acne medication found to be occurring in 7100 i.e. almost 41% patients. These patients were matched with 35,500 controls parameters of those patients who had not received any anti-acne medication.

Study also revealed that the rate of relapse was 192 for every 1000 persons per year. Isotretinoin was dispensed to 4011 i.e.56.5% patients, whereas 3089 or 43.5% patients were treated with another anti-acne medication.

Patients who received cumulative isotretinoin doses greater than 2450 mg had a low probability to experience an acne relapse in comparison to those who received treatment for more than 121 days.

Analysis of the origin of the patients revealed that the younger age up to 16 years, male gender, and living in an urban area were closely associated with acne relapse. Treatment guidelines that were published during the study period had no impact on the incidence of acne relapse.

Similarly, a second nested case-control analysis was also performed successively to determine the predicting indicators of receiving a second isotretinoin treatment.
Of the 17,351 first-time isotretinoin recipients in the cohort, a total of 4443 or 25.6% had two or more isotretinoin treatments during the study period. These cases were subsequently matched to 22,215 controls with those who had not received isotretinoin.
It was revealed that the rate of receiving a second isotretinoin treatment was 91 for every 1000 persons per year. Most patients who received a second isotretinoin treatment did so within 25.4 months after completion of their first treatment.

Acne

Comparison of the results of both the analyses revealed that the patients were more likely to receive a second isotretinoin treatment in the years after guidelines were implemented.
Researchers concluded with hope that, “these data could be of prognostic value to clinicians who treat patients with acne“.

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