paula_fonseca@estescoimbra.pt
Acne is a chronic inflammatory disease of the pilosebaceous follicle, which affects a large number of people
at all ages, from birth to adulthood. Although it is a benign dermatological change, it has a huge impact and long-term in
patient’s lives, including problems in psychosocial development, low self-esteem and emotional stress. The delay in seeking
medical help aggravates the physical and psychological injuries, so it is pertinent to demystify the disease and highlight all
forms of treatment and its effectiveness.
Objectives: Make a systematic review of all studies in the last nine years, in order to alert the public to the implications of
pathology in the patient’s life, addressing the various forms of treatment.
Methods: Resorted to the systematic literature review and analyzed the various hypotheses concerning the therapeutic.
Data collection was performed by searching for articles on online platforms Pubmed, Google Scholar, b-on and SciELO and
consulting manuals and periodicals reference between October 2013 and July 2014.
Results: Using 16 studies, it is emphasized that the information about acne is still quite weak, the psychological impact is
strongly exaggerated and that the therapy used is untested as to its effectiveness.
Discussion: Nowadays there is a wide variety of pharmacological resources available and their effectiveness depends on the
type and form of the disease, early treatment and adherence.
Conclusions: The field of dermatology is quite neglected and forgotten because there are few comparative clinical studies
proving the effectiveness of therapy when applied to humans, and the existing information is very general and doesn’t apply
to specific cases. It is important to develop studies for the creation of new effective substances with high tolerability, fewer
side effects and accessible to the entire population.
