Adapalene

Adapalene gel worked just as quickly and effectively as Retin A Micro in clearing acne, but it caused less dryness, stinging, burning, erythema, and scaling in a 12-week trial that included 168 patients.

"I don't think for a second there is an irritant gene that Retin A turns on and adapalene doesn't," Dr. Brad Amos said at an acne update at the annual Hawaii dermatology seminar sponsored by the Skin Disease Education Foundation.

Instead, he attributes adapalene's gentle clinical profile to the drug's profound anti-inflammatory properties.

The investigator-blinded study found no significant difference in the number of comedones or the total lesion count when patients using 0.1% adapalene were compared with those using 0.1% Retin A Micro.

But dryness was less pronounced in patients using adapalene each time they were examined, at weeks 1, 2, 6, and 12. Stinging, burning, erythema, and scaling were similarly less of a problem with adapalene, Dr. Amos, a dermatologist in private practice in Wexford, Pa., reported at the seminar, also sponsored by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

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