Rosacea patients seeking advice: Qualitative analysis of patients' posts on a rosacea support forum.

BACKGROUND: Social media have become outlets for patients to voice opinions and ask questions. Since suffering from rosacea is an isolating experience and the disease is poorly understood, patients use social media to expand their knowledge about the condition. OBJECTIVE: To understand rosacea patients' online health information seeking habits to obtain a better insight of their educational needs. METHODS: Ten percent of posts in online rosacea forum composed of 3350 members and 27 051 posts, discussing patient viewpoints and concern, selected by stratified random sampling. Three hundred and nine queries were directly categorized to patients "seeking advice" by two investigators and qualitatively analyzed. RESULTS: Patients primarily sought advice about treatments (n = 155, 50.1%), triggers (n = 53, 17.1%), diet (n = 48, 15.5%), skin care (n = 37, 11.9%) and special presentations of the disease (n = 22, 7.1%). Questions frequently pertained to adverse effects, efficacy and target of therapy (78, 49, 30 posts, respectively). CONCLUSION: Proactively providing reliable resources and comprehensive explanations on treatments, triggers, diet and skin care could be helpful in reducing patients' confusion about rosacea and enhancing rosacea patient-physician relationships.

Rosacea Patient Perspectives on Homeopathic and Over-the-counter Therapies.

BACKGROUND: Rosacea patients commonly employ nonprescription therapies. The authors' aim was to understand rosacea patients' perceptions of over-the-counter products, complementary and alternative medicine, and homeopathic therapies. METHOD: A public, online discussion forum comprising 3,350 members and 27,051 posts provided a source of 346 posts on patient perceptions on alternative rosacea treatments. RESULTS: Three major themes of nonprescription treatment were identified-motivation for use, patient-provider discussions, and experience with these treatments. Perceived medication failure, barriers to treatment, and distrust of physicians drive patients to seek nonprescription therapies. Still, patients prefer to consult a physician on incorporating nonprescription therapies into treatment. Complementary and alternative medicine natural products (19.4% of posts), complementary and alternative medicine practices (16.5%), and homeopathic medicine (3.8%) were commonly discussed. CONCLUSION: Physicians have an opportunity to be a trusted source of information on the strengths and weaknesses of skin care products and other complementary treatments for rosacea.

Photoprotective effect of botanicals and vitamins: A systematic review of clinical trials.

BACKGROUND: Overexposure to solar radiation is a major contributor to skin cancer development and premature skin aging. Botanical extracts and vitamins may represent novel photoprotective agents. OBJECTIVE: We sought to systemically review clinical evidence for the use of botanically derived agents and vitamins as photoprotective agents. METHODS: We systematically searched Embase and PubMed databases. Two independent reviewers reviewed abstracts for inclusion. Additional relevant studies were identified by a manual review of reference lists. Data from eligible studies were extracted independently and discrepancies were resolved by consensus. RESULTS: A total of 51 studies met inclusion criteria. Limited available evidence indicates that several botanical agents and vitamins in topical or oral forms may have promising photoprotective effects. However, generalizability of results is limited by small sample sizes. CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE: Botanical extracts and vitamins may add to the armamentarium of sun-protective agents. Additional high-quality trials are needed to strengthen support for their use.

The rosacea patient journey: a novel approach to conceptualizing patient experiences.

The motivation for rosacea patients to seek and adhere to treatment is not well characterized. A patient journey is a map of the steps a patient takes as he/she progresses through different segments of the disease from diagnosis to management, including all the influences that can push him/her toward or away from certain decisions. We sought to examine each step of the rosacea patient journey to better understand key patient care boundaries faced by rosacea patients. A PubMed search of articles indexed for MEDLINE as well as a search of the National Rosacea Society Web site (http://www.rosacea.org) were conducted to identify articles and materials that quantitatively or qualitatively described rosacea patient experiences. Current literature pertaining to the rosacea patient journey was summarized. The rosacea patient journey is discussed. It is a useful tool to gain insight on patient experiences. Better understanding of the patient perspective by dermatologists can lead to better patient adherence to treatment and thus improved quality of life and satisfaction.

UVB-sensitive solar urticaria possibly associated with terbinafine.

Solar urticaria is an uncommon condition characterized by erythema and whealing shortly after exposure to ultraviolet (UV) and/or visible light. We report a 25-year-old woman with an erythematous, edematous, pruritic reaction minutes after sun exposure while she was taking terbinafine for onychomycosis. Phototesting revealed a UVB-sensitive urticarial reaction, confirming the diagnosis of solar urticaria. This report describes the first patient with possible terbinafine-associated solar urticaria.

Patient perspectives on low level light therapy and laser therapies for rosacea-associated persistent facial redness.

INTRODUCTION: There are no definitive treatments of facial redness for rosacea. All treatments aim to alleviate symptoms. Patients' perspectives of two emerging modalities, Low level light therapy and laser treatments are not well characterized. The purpose is to further understand rosacea patients unmet needs about these modalities, Methods: The publicly accessible, online rosacea forum was accessed at august 2013. Stratified random sampling method has done to identify a 10% sample of total 27,051 posts. The Posts were published in the "Laser and IPL therapy" and "Low level light therapy" forums were qualitatively analyzed. RESULTS: Patients discussed a variety of topics, but most commonly discussed effectiveness (34.2%), treatment education (19.3%), and adverse effects (18%). Relationship with the health care provider (9.9%), cost (8.1%), execution of treatments (8.1%) and convenience of treatments (2.5%) were less commonly discussed, but contributed to patients' decisions about utilizing laser and light therapies. CONCLUSIONS: Online forums are utilized to fulfill patients' desire for educational, empathic and collaborative relationship. Patients' adherence to laser and light therapies will likely increase if costs are reduced, reduction in redness is consistent with their expectations, and if physicians empower them through education on device choices and managing adverse effects.