Several medications used for purposes unrelated to skin may cause or aggravate acne. However, the direct cause and effect between these drugs and the acne is not always clear; thus, it is important to confer with your doctor if you suspect that a drug you are taking may be impacting your acne.

The most common drugs that stand accused of exacerbating acne are:

Dilantin (diphenylan sodium), used to treat grand mal seizures and prevent or treat seizures during and after brain surgery.

Lithium, used to treat manic depression and, at lower dosages, to treat certain other psychological conditions, such as eating disorders and premenstrual tension.

Micro-K and other comparable brands of potassium chloride, used to treat low potassium levels, particularly when a person taking certain heart medications.

Certain cold medications, especially those containing bromides iodides.

Various forms of birth control pills. The impact of birth control pills on women’s hormonal balance may boost sebum production and hence users’ susceptibility to acne!

Steroids. These may cause a distinctive form of acne beginning days or even weeks after the start of treatment. Steroid-induced acne appears as tiny red papules and pustules in the area to which the steroid was applied (if it was used topically) or on the chest, back, and: shoulders (if the therapy was systemic). This form of acne occurs because the steroids tend to thin the dermis, making the follicular canals” more likely to rupture inward. However, since the steroids are powerful anti-inflammatories, the lesions tend to be small. In some cases, they don’t appear at all until after the drug use has been discontinued.

In rare cases, other drugs, including actinomycin D, halothane, thiouracil, thiourea, trimethadiaone, and vitamin B12.

In every case of acne medicamentosa, the first step is to check with your physician to see whether a change in medication is feasible. In many instances-as with steroids-even though no change is possible, the regimen is short-lived, and the problem will therefore quickly resolve itself. In others-as with birth control pills-there is a wide choice of appropriate alternatives. Although no one quite understands why, for some women making a change may stop the acne even though the new medication provides essentially the same hormones as the prior one, while for other women a change may have no effect at all.