Comparison of efficacy and safety of adapalene and benzoyl peroxide-clindamycin combination in the topical treatment of acne vulgaris

Background: Acne vulgaris is a dermatological disorder characterised by formation of comedones and inflammatory lesions. The treatment of acne basically involves reduction of lesions and prevention of permanent scarring. The current line of treatment for mild to moderate acne is topical medications with antimicrobials and retinoids. The present study assessed the efficacy and safety of adapalene in comparison to benzoyl peroxide-clindamycin combination that whether it is better than the benzoyl peroxide-clindamycin combination for topical treatment of mild to moderate acne vulgaris.Methods: In this study, the patients with mild to moderate acne vulgaris were divided into two groups, one group was treated with topical adapalene whereas topical benzoyl peroxide-clindamycin combination was given to the other group. Assessment of efficacy was done by total lesion counting while safety assessment was done by noting the adverse drug reactions due to medication, the results were compared at the end of 1, 2 and 3 months with the baseline values.Results: At the end of this study, it was found that the reduction of non-inflammatory, inflammatory and total lesion counts from baseline were highly significant in both the groups (p<0.0001), but between the groups, differences were not significant statistically (p>0.05), therefore adapalene and benzoyl peroxide-clindamycin combination were found to have similar efficacy. The tolerability profile of adapalene was comparatively better than benzoyl peroxide-clindamycin combination.Conclusions: Adapalene is as efficacious as benzoyl peroxide-clindamycin combination to treat mild to moderate acne vulgaris, but it is comparatively better tolerated than benzoyl peroxide-clindamycin combination.