Complementary therapies for acne vulgaris.

Area of Science:

• Dermatology
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)
• Evidence-based Medicine

Background:

• Acne vulgaris is a common chronic skin condition causing inflamed spots and lesions.
• Patients often seek complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) due to concerns about conventional acne treatments.
• Systematic assessment of CAM evidence for acne is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of complementary therapies for acne vulgaris.
• To synthesize evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing CAM interventions with controls.

Main Methods:

• Comprehensive database searches were conducted up to January 2014, including Cochrane, MEDLINE, Embase, and others.
• Parallel-group randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of any CAM for acne vulgaris were included.
• Data extraction and quality assessment were performed independently by three authors.

Main Results:

• Thirty-five RCTs involving 3227 participants were included, with most studies having unclear risk of bias.
• Low-quality evidence from single trials suggests potential benefits of low-glycaemic-load diets, tea tree oil, and bee venom for reducing acne lesions.
• Evidence for herbal medicine, acupuncture, and cupping therapy was inconsistent or insufficient; mild adverse effects were reported for some CAMs.

Conclusions:

• Current low-quality evidence suggests limited benefit for specific CAMs (LGLD, tea tree oil, bee venom) in acne vulgaris.
• Robust conclusions on other CAMs like herbal medicine and acupuncture are not supported due to insufficient evidence and study quality limitations.
• Future research should focus on high-quality RCTs with low risk of bias and standardized reporting to assess CAM efficacy and safety in acne.