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Topical corticosteroids are associated with a risk of local skin atrophy, especially when they are used long-term for such diseases as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. Studies in mice suggest that administration of topical tretinoin with a corticosteroid diminishes skin atrophy but not the steroid's antiinflammatory effects. These investigators assessed combined tretinoin and corticosteroid treatment in an eight-week study of 17 patients with psoriasis.
Two psoriatic plaques on each patient were treated with 0.05% betamethasone dipropionate (Diprosone) cream every morning and with either 0.1% tretinoin (Retin-A) cream or its base every evening, and one plaque was left untreated for a control. As expected, the control plaque did not change ov…