Psychological factors affecting self-excoriative behavior in women with mild-to-moderate facial acne vulgaris.

The authors examined the psychological factors associated with self-excoriative behavior among 56 women (mean +/- SE age: 24.0 +/- 1.0 years) with mild-to-moderate facial acne vulgaris. Ratings associated with poor self-concept, such as perfectionistic and compulsive personality traits, correlated more strongly with self-excoriative behavior than the dermatologic indices of acne severity. The study's findings suggest that psychological factors, independent of acne severity, play an important role in the perpetuation of the self-excoriative behavior exhibited by some women with acne.