Adult Acne - Even Grown Ups get the Acne Blues: Notes from a San Francisco Bay Area Dermatologist

If you have adult acne you are not alone!  Adults comprise 46% of dermatologist’s acne patients.  Angst over acne is also not confined to teens.  Roughly 3 in 10 adults with acne would rather change their skin than any other physical attribute, including body weight and wrinkles!  41% of adults state that acne negatively effects their self-confidence and 52% say it’s more stressful than having it as a teenager.

In my practice I have seen patients with even mild acne cancel social plans when they have a breakout and fall into depression over chronic acne.  Despite this, only about ½ of acne patients say they use their acne medications consistently and correctly.  Dermatologists estimate that it is really only 2%.  Acne medications must be used everyday, even when the skin is clear to be effective, but we all live in a state of hope (maybe it’s gone forever) and denial if our skin is clear then we stop our treatments.  As soon as we break out we restart.  Unfortunately, by that time it is too late.  Patients with acne need to  see their treatment as essential to their skin health as tooth brushing and flossing is to dental health.

Tags: Acne, acne medication, adult acne, bay area dermatologist, san francisco bay area dermatologist, skin

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 11th, 2009 at 8:38 pm and is filed under Acne. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.