Blue light therapy effective alternative treatment for adults with Grover’s disease
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Preferred by 50% of patients, blue light therapy decreased lesion count and improved itch without adverse events for the treatment of Grover’s disease in adults, according to a research letter published in JAMA Dermatology.
“Grover’s disease [transient acantholytic dermatosis] is a relatively uncommon skin disease that is characterized by itchy red spots on the chest and back,” Steve Xu, MD, MSc, head of the medical advisory board at Geologie, told Healio. “For some individuals, it can be really aggravating, including affecting one’s ability to sleep.
“For many, a simple topical steroid works well — but for some, they don’t do enough,” Xu continued. “Thus, we conducted an innovative study for Grover’s disease patients that tried a lot of other treatments before [with] minimal benefit.”
In this nonrandomized controlled trial, researchers administered 15 treatments of nonionizing blue light phototherapy irradiation to 11 patients (mean age, 64 years; 82% men) with Grover’s disease. Each session lasted 9 minutes per side and was conducted three times a week for 5 consecutive weeks.
Results showed a mean baseline lesion count decrease from 27 (95% CI, 9.2-45.6) to six (95% CI, 2.5-8.7). Similarly, scores on the Itch Severity Scale decreased from 7.8 (95% CI, 6.5-8.9) to 5.1 (95% CI, 3.5-6.8), with two participants achieving complete disease resolution.
However, cytokine concentrations did not differ between pretreatment and posttreatment assessments, which researchers suggest indicates a localized rather than systemic effect.
Although one participant did not complete the study, there were no treatment-related adverse events, with all participants reporting comfort in using the blue light devices at home. Of 10 total participants, five preferred blue light therapy to topic therapies, while three were indifferent and two preferred topical therapies.
“Using blue light phototherapy, we were able to significantly reduce the amount of spots and most importantly the itch,” Xu said. “If clinicians have Grover’s disease patients that have failed topical therapies and do not want to try more invasive treatments like oral agents or ultraviolet phototherapy, consider blue light phototherapy as an alternative.”