Trial Outcomes & Findings for Safety and Preliminary Efficacy of Combination Therapy for the Treatment of Acne Vulgaris (NCT NCT02431494)

The study was terminated and the PI has left the institution. Efforts were made to contact the PI/study team members, but were unsuccessful. No study data are available.

Safety and Preliminary Efficacy of Combination Therapy for the Treatment of Acne Vulgaris

The investigators will conduct a systematic count of acne lesions (papules and pustules) present in all of the affected areas of the face.

The investigators will use the Sebumeter® SM 815 manufactured by CK Electronic to estimate the amount of sebum. The measurement is based on grease spot photometry. The mat tape of the Sebumeter® SM 815 is brought into contact with facial skin. It becomes transparent in relation to the sebum on the surface of the measurement area. Then the tape is inserted into the aperture of the device and the transparency is measured by a photocell. The light transmission represents the sebum content.

The investigators will use the acne counts and the digital photographs of the affected areas to compute the acne severity level following the procedures established by Hayashi et al. (2008). The investigators will not print the digital photographs. The investigators will visually inspect the digital photographs and assign a preliminary severity score to each half of the face using the following classification guide: 0-5 papules and/pustules for mild acne; 6-20 for moderate acne, 21-50 for severe acne; and more than 50 for very severe. The investigators will examine each half of the face separately. The most severe classification obtained for either side of the face will be the assigned severity score.

The investigators will use the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) developed by A. Y. Finlay and G. K. Khan (1992), one of the most widely used, dermatologic specific quality of life measures in the published literature to assess quality of life. The DLQI consists of 10 Likert type items; 9 of these items have 4 response categories scored from 0 to 3 with "very much" being "3" to "not at all" being "0". Item 7 "Over the last week, has participant's skin prevented participant from working or studying" uses dichotomous responses; where "yes" is scored as a "3" and a "no" requires answering an additional sub-question, "Over the past week how much has participant's skin been a problem at work or studying". Responses for this sub-question range from "a lot" coded a "2", to "not at all" coded a "0." The DLQI is calculated by summing the response to each question; the maximum score is "30" and the minimum score is "0". The higher the score, the lower the dermatologic quality of life.

Symptoms of social anxiety will be assessed using the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (Liebowitz, 1987), one of the most widely used scales to measure social anxiety. It consists of 24 items designed to assess fear and avoidance in different situations that are likely to produce social anxiety such as going to a party or speaking in public. For each situation, participants are first asked to state how fearful or anxious they feel in that situation using a Likert scale that ranges from "none" (0) to "severe" (3). Then they are asked to state how often they avoid that same situation using a Likert scale that ranges from "never" (0) to "usually" (3). Responses are summed to create an overall anxiety score.

The investigators will assess depressive symptomatology using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) (Zigmond and Snaith 1983), one of the most widely used screening tools to identify symptoms of depression, anxiety and emotional distress amongst patients being treated for a variety of clinical problems. It consists of 14 items, 7 of which assess generalized symptoms of anxiety and the remaining 7 assess depressive symptomatology. Although the specific wording of the item responses vary in accordance to the item, all responses are coded using a Likert format ranging from "0" to "3" where the most positive response is coded a "0" and the most negative response a "3". The maximum score for each subscale is 21; higher scores are reflective of more symptoms of anxiety or depression.

Self-esteem will be assessed using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, one of the most widely-used self-esteem measures in social science research. It consists of ten items designed to assess respondent's self-satisfaction, self-respect and other general feelings about himself/herself. The response format is a four point Likert scale ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree". For items 1, 2, 4, 6, 7: Strongly Agree=3, Agree=2, Disagree=1, and Strongly Disagree=0. For items 3, 5, 8, 9, 10: Strongly Agree=0, Agree=1, Disagree=2, and Strongly Disagree=3. The scale ranges from 0-30, higher scores indicating higher self-esteem.