Add-on desloratadine helps reduce acne itching, improve treatment satisfaction

Adding desloratadine to an isotretinoin regimen appears to reduce pruritus in acne, leading to a higher patient satisfaction, as shown in a study.

For the study, researchers enrolled 90 patients with moderate to severe acne from a tertiary care teaching hospital in North India. These patients were randomly assigned to receive treatment with low-dose oral isotretinoin (0.3 mg/kg/day) alone or in combination with desloratadine at 5 mg/day.

The primary outcome was an improved global acne grading system (GAGS) score and decreased acne lesion count. Secondary outcomes included patient satisfaction with treatment. Follow-up assessments were conducted at weeks 4, 8, and 12.

A total of 15 patients dropped out of the study. A total of 71 patients were ultimately included in the intention-to-treat analysis, with 41 in the combination arm and 30 in the monotherapy (control) arm.

Results showed no significant difference in the GAGS score at week 12 between the combination and monotherapy arms (p>0.05). The same held true for acne lesion count (p>0.05).

However, significantly fewer patients in the combination arm than in the monotherapy arm had pruritus (9.76 percent vs 33.33 percent; p=0.018). Furthermore, the combination arm had a higher proportion of patients reporting “excellent” treatment satisfaction (53.66 percent vs 36.67 percent).