Rosacea: Medications

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Medications

You can use antibiotic creams to relieve the redness on your face and help eye symptoms that result from rosacea. Antibiotic pills may help clear the pimples, and can reduce the swelling or irritation in your eyes. Mild cases often respond to treatment with antibiotic creams. But symptoms usually improve faster with antibiotics you take as pills or capsules. Long-term use of oral antibiotics may cause side effects, such as stomach upset and vaginal yeast infections. Therefore, oral medication may be used first, then tapered off and followed by antibiotic cream.

With antibiotic treatment, symptoms usually improve in 3 to 4 weeks, with greater improvement in 2 months.

Swollen bumps on the nose (rhinophyma) do not respond well to antibiotic treatment.

Medication Choices

Medications used to treat rosacea include:

• Antibiotics. Used alone or with another medication, antibiotics are the most common medicines doctors prescribe to treat rosacea.
• Isotretinoin. Doctors usually prescribe isotretinoin only for severe rosacea or rosacea that does not respond to antibiotics.

  Note: Women who are pregnant or may become pregnant should not take isotretinoin, because of the risk of serious side effects such as miscarriage and birth defects.

• Tretinoin (Retin-A, Avita, Renova). Tretinoin is a topical medication most often used to treat acne. You may use it to treat the pimples that develop from rosacea. It is not useful for treating red lines (telangiectasia) or facial redness.

Doctors may prescribe other medications, including imidazoles or azelaic acid gel (such as Finacea).

What To Think About

Medications often work well to help improve the symptoms of rosacea.

You may need to keep taking medicine for rosacea if you have symptoms that are hard to control.

Last updated:	July 24, 2007
Author:	Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS
Reviewed By:	Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine, Alexander H. Murray, MD, FRCPC - Dermatology
Editors:	Susan Van Houten, RN, BSN, MBA, Pat Truman, MATC