Skin atrophy induced by initial continuous topical application of clobetasol followed by intermittent application

The most frequent side effect of a long-term topical corticosteroid therapy is skin atrophy. To avoid or to reduce atrophy often an initial continuous application is followed by an intermittent maintenance therapy.

In this study we measured the skin thickness before and after the two-phase application schedule with the superpotent topical steroid clobetasol propionate (CP). For 16 days CP samples were applied twice daily on the test areas of 12 volunteers (phase 1). Then CP was applied to the same skin areas in accordance with the following timing: every 5th day, every 7th day, every 10th day, every 14th day (phase 2). Phase 2 lasted for 45 days. During the entire period of the study the skin thickness was measured regularly by the skin compression and thickness method as described previously.

It could be seen that in phase 1 the skin became about 15% thinner. In phase 2 the steroid-induced skin thinning was approximately the same when CP was applied every 5th or 7th day. The skin thickness reached a more or less normal level when CP was applied every 10th day. After the 14th day a completely normal level was found. By measuring the skin thickness every day it was further shown that the skin thinning process lasted for 3 days when CP was applied once only.

These results demonstrate that skin thinning must be expected by an intermittent maintenance therapy applied at relatively short intervals. The longer the intervals, the weaker the skin thinning. Moreover, these investigations showed that the skin thinning effect after a single CP application persists for nearly 3 days.