Rns Look Into Acne

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday February 1, 1996

BY JO ARBLASTER

Specialists at the Royal North Shore Hospital are to carry out a study of acne patients and the effect of an antibiotic drug used to treat the condition.

In a recent report in the British Medical Journal, doctors were warned to question the use of minocycline for the treatment of acne.

Researchers at Leeds University in the north of England said in the report that the side effects were rare but dangerous, citing cases of arthritis and hepatitis which had developed in a small number of patients after taking the drug.

Consultant dermatologist at RNS, Dr Alan Cooper, said minocycline had been used to treat acne in Australia for "at least 20 years" with minimal side effects affecting one in 325,000.

"What we are talking about here is something that is incredibly rare."

However, in order to study the effects of the drug further, a research team from the departments of dermatology and gastroenterology at RNS is to run a trial, monitoring the condition of acne patients while they are taking the antibiotic.

"The question we are asking in our study is: are there lesser levels of effects on the liver than the ones that are gross enough to come to people's attention."

Dr Cooper said minocycline was the best antibiotic available for the treatment of acne. "The other antibiotics we have relied upon are starting to lose their effectiveness whereas with minocycline there are no reports of the development of resistant strains."

Dr Cooper said the RNS team was looking for as many acne sufferers as possible to take part in the trial which starts this week. "The more patients we get, the more chance of a statistically significant result."

Patients would remain under the care of their general practitioner during the trial but would have regular testing which would be monitored by the RNS team. Tests would be carried out on patients before treatment to make sure there is no problem before they start.

Dr Cooper said: "People can have their normal acne treatment with the additional safety of a monitor to pick up anything that might happen before it could become a problem."