So acne has lots of different types of spots. Some people will have mostly one type, some people will have all different types. All spots come- are focused around something called the pilosebaceous unit and that’s where the hair grows out of a follicle, with a little sebum producing gland which is called the sebaceous unit. The earliest type of spots are mostly comedones and people will know these as whiteheads and blackheads, and those are called open comedones [blackheads] and closed comedones [whiteheads]. That’s really just a build-up of sebum and other stuff within the hair follicle. The more inflammatory type of spots are pustules and that’s when you get a different type of cell, called a white cell. And those are the ones which look like squeezable spots, so they look quite pus-y and they look quite different from comedones most people will be able to tell the difference between a whitehead and a pustule. Then you can get more problematic or larger spots, you can get cysts, abscesses. And then you can get from spots, you can get marks and scarring. And you know some of those scars can be more lumpy, hypertrophic or keloid.

So it depends how you define acne in terms of-, most teenagers in this country will get spots to some degree. Whether they’sll all get acne is, you know, depends on where your definition and where your line lies. So I suppose if-, just having spots is very common, having acne that needs treatment either by your GP or by a dermatologist is not so common. But I think still within, you know, 15-20% of teenagers will have severity of spots or acne that needs treatment, so it’s very common. And that will depend on thresholds as to how- how people access healthcare or access treatment.

And how often does it tend to last for people who do have some aspect of acne?

Yeah. So the evidence is that the prevalence is very high and then it slightly depends on what sex you are. So boys tend to have worse acne that lasts probably shorter and they may be more likely for it to not last beyond their teenage years. Whereas girls can have less severe acne but it can grumble on into their 20’s and particularly if they have a more hormonal type of acne or it seems to get worse around their cycle, those types can become- can carry on into their 20s and even 30s. All of these can be like modified by treatment, but there are particular patterns that tend to be a bit more chronic. So sort of jawline acne in females can be more problem- more chronic without treatment.

I think it’s always difficult to talk about the difference between causes and triggers. Most people, the cause of their acne is a normal part of puberty and adolescence, and it’s to do with a, you know, complex mix of hormones. Particularly androgens, testosterone, which are higher during puberty. So we’re not normally looking for kind of an underlying cause, because mostly it’s quite well recognised that being in puberty you’re kind of acne-prone. And that’s partly because of the- mostly because of the hormones. And obviously because of those, the way those hormones will then increase sebum production, which in turn will make it a more favourable state for certain bugs. Particularly p. acnes to live on the skin and cause sort of more problems with acne. There are some other kind of rare causes. So you can have other reasons why you might have increased testosterone. For instance, taking anabolic steroids, or something like that. So very, very unusually there can be other causes. But mostly it’s, you know, you’re more likely to have bad acne if you’ve got genetics or bad- family history, family history of bad acne, and then you’re going through puberty. We know that boys tend to have more inflammatory acne in puberty, but girls can have more chronic acne as they get older. So, hormones are the main kind of cause. In terms of triggers, that’s a bit more difficult to kind of untangle. Like any inflammatory state, stress can play a role. Which I think, you know, obviously when people find they’ve got a spot at an important point in their life, and you know, we know that stress can play a role in all of these processes. Other triggers are not so sort of clearly worked out. So people are often interested in diet. And it’s a kind of area of increasing research. Probably some places, some places where they have very low dairy diets have very low acne, even in adolescence. So there may be some role for particularly high dairy diets, and that might have some role on the types of hormones and inflammation they have on their skin. Other triggers. So, smoking doesn’t seem to make acne- so it doesn’t make it better. It’s not clear whether it makes it much worse. But mostly people will get acne, you know, even if they have clean skin, if they don’t have kind of bad skin habits. It’s just unfortunately a part of the way their genetics are and being a teenager.

Yeah, I think there are lots of misconceptions. And it’s not to do with having dirty skin or not washing your face. It’s to do with the hormone levels and your sebum production and your genetics. And that’s, that’s normally nothing to do with, you know, your diet or how clean or dirty you are, what your food-, whether you eat junk food or not. You know, we do know that probably having a healthy diet, eating fruit and vegetables, is good for your skin generally. But the other way round it’s not quite so clear. So I don’t think there’s a clear link between junk food and acne. And I know lots of-, I see lots of young people who have incredibly healthy diets and have acne in any case. So I think it’s , it’s not directly linked to the food you eat. Sunshine can help some people with acne, it can be- you know, it probably reduces inflammation and can help some, some people with acne. But you know, face washing is an important part of management, but certainly you can have very clean skin and still have acne. So I think unfortunately you can do everything right, look after your skin, eat lots of fruit and vegetables, and still get spots. And that’s, you know, people mustn’t feel that they’re responsible for that.

At what stage should a young person to go to the doctors if they are having some spots?

I think there’s lots of things that can be done for acne. The key is to do things before you’ve got scarring. So I don’t think it’s worth waiting and waiting. I mean, there’s lots of things that can be used over the counter quite safely, initially. So there are some quite good, you know, products which are, you know, available without seeing a doctor. But I think if you’re getting ongoing lesions, if you think you’ve got any kind of marks or scarring, you should absolutely go and see your doctor as soon as possible. And, or even if you know that you’re kind of high risk, then it might be worth going to see your doctor, just to sort of get prepared. If you know you’ve had an older brother or sister that’s had very bad acne, or a parent who’s had scarring acne. I don’t think- it’s not something you need to kind of wait until things are really bad, because there are things that can be done.

So traditionally when it was a new medicine and it was found to be very effective for acne, there were concerns about its safety and its side-effects. Particularly the psychiatric side-effects and it was- when it was first being used, it had links with depression and even suicide in certain people. So I think there was quite a lot of concern about its use first of all and it was certainly being used, you know, it had quite a high threshold for use. And the other reason for care with its use is the pregnancy prevention programme. So if you’sre on isotretinoin and you’sre female, it’s, you know, it’s very dangerous to get pregnant and there would highly likely be a problem with the baby if you did get pregnant. So for those reasons, so partly the kind of concern about side-effects, partly the need to monitor things, particularly pregnancy side, it’s traditionally been prescribed only in hospitals by dermatologists. That may change in the future and I think as antibiotics have- have to be careful with prescribing antibiotics for their- they’sre used quite a lot in primary care anti-inflammatory purposes for acne- for treating acne, but really if the side-effects of using the antibiotics is so widely more problematic than using something like isotretinoin which is a very effective treatment for acne earlier, then this may change in the future. There have been a few times when I think there- so some GPs with Special Interests can and do prescribe isotretinoin, but they have to be comfortable with monitoring the side-effects, monitoring the pregnancy prevention programme. And traditionally when that’s been kind of rolled out to General Primary Care unit, it hasn’st worked so well and they haven’st felt comfortable prescribing it. But these things are, yeah, may change in the future.