Impact of Stress on Acne

With the approach of finals everyone’s stress levels are increasing. With this stress comes the negative impact that this prolonged stress can have. It is common to believe that stress increases the severity of acne. Many people, including myself, seem to notice an increase in the severity of their acne as stress increases. However, in the research world, support for this phenomenon is not very strong or concrete. Based on what we have talked about in class this semester, it makes sense that an increase in stress could lead to an increase in acne. When we are stressed our parasympathetic nervous system, or rest and digest response, is turned off. It makes sense that prevention of acne, by keeping the pores clear, would be a function of the parasympathetic nervous system. When we have increased sympathetic nervous system action and decreased parasympathetic nervous system action for a prolonged period of time, it is logical that acne will increase.

Bondade, Hosthota, and Basavaraju’s paper explores stress’s impact on acne and somewhat supports this idea (2018). Their results claim that stressful life events do appear to increase the severity of acne flares, but they do not cause new cases of acne to appear. In addition, increases in the release of hormones such as corticotropin-releasing hormone and glucocorticoids have been seen to decrease skin permeability, prevent skin lipid synthesis, decrease antimicrobial defense, and delay wound healing. All of these together could lead to increased acne and slowed healing of acne. Despite these findings, it is generally believed that the impact of stress on acne is not totally clear from a research standpoint. (Bondade, Hosthota, & Basavaraju, 2018) Though stress is widely believed to have an impact on acne, we will not be able to say for sure what the impact of stress on acne is until research with more mathematically significant results are obtained. Nevertheless, based on current available research, we can add this to the ever-growing list of reasons why decreasing chronic stress is important.

Resource:

Bondade, S., Hosthota, A., & Basavaraju, V. (2018). Stressful life events and psychiatric comorbidity

in acne-a case control study. Asia-Pacific Psychiatry: Official Journal Of The Pacific Rim College Of Psychiatrists, e12340. https://doi-org.dml.regis.edu/10.1111/appy.12340