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Efficacy and safety of oral silymarin in comparison with oral doxycycline and their combination therapy in the treatment of acne vulgaris
Author(s) -
Shie Morteza Maryam,
Hayati Zeynab,
Namazi Nastaran,
Abdollahimajd Fahimeh
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
dermatologic therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.595
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1529-8019
pISSN - 1396-0296
DOI - 10.1111/dth.13095
Subject(s) - doxycycline , acne , medicine , randomized controlled trial , dermatology , combination therapy , pharmacology , gastroenterology , antibiotics , microbiology and biotechnology , biology
Abstract Two factors of oxidative stress and inflammatory processes are implicated in pathogenesis of acne vulgaris. Silymarin has antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory activities. This study was done to evaluate the effect of oral silymarin in the treatment of acne vulgaris compared to doxycycline and also their combination therapy. This randomized controlled trial was performed on 60 patients with acne vulgaris were divided into three groups of 20 patients, including: Silymarin (Group 1), Doxycycline (Group 2), and both compounds (Group 3). The patients' response was monitored every month and the lesions were evaluated using photography and two methods of Global Acne Grading system (GAGS) and Acne Severity Index (ASI). According to the results, the response to silymarin was not significantly different with doxycycline in the GAGS index ( p = .260), but was lower in the ASI ( p = .021). In this study, the synergistic effects of silymarin and doxycycline combination have been investigated in comparison with doxycycline. Although the improvement was more favorable in combination group, there was no statistically significant difference ( p = .9 in ASI and p = .5 in GAGS). The results of our study suggest that although the silymarin monotherapy is not as effective as doxycycline for the treatment of acne vulgaris, it can be a therapeutic option.