Cognitive behavioral therapy as an adjuvant therapy in acne excoriée: a randomized controlled clinical trial

Abstract

Background Acne excoriée (AE) is a difficult challenge in dermatology practice. AE is mostly associated with some psychiatric disorders particularly mood disorders. Thus, patients generally continue to manipulate their lesions. It was aimed to compare the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as an adjuvant treatment for AE in a randomized controlled clinical trial.Methods Thirty-two adults with AE were randomly assigned to CBT or control group. Both the groups received similar standard medication. Furthermore, eight sessions of CBT were held during 2 months in CBT group. Self-reported Skin Picking Scale (SPS), clinical severity rating, beck anxiety and depression inventories were determined at the baseline and after 2-month follow-up.Results Participants in CBT group showed significantly more improvement on clinical severity score (p=.01) as well as SPS score (p=.02) after 2-month follow-up, in comparison to the control group. Depression and anxiety scores were significantly diminished after two months among CBT group in comparison to controls (p value .01 for both anxiety and depression).Conclusion CBT constitutes a utile treatment option for AE and should be considered as an adjuvant therapy in clinical setting.