MINI REVIEW article
Front. Med.
Sec. Dermatology
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring Cutaneous Drug-Related and Drug-Associated Adverse Events: From Clinical Insight to Therapeutic ManagementView all 15 articles
Acneiform Drug Eruptions - Update on Pathophysiology and Culprit Drugs
Provisionally accepted
- 1University Medical Center Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
- 2Heinz-Werner-Seifert-Institut für Dermatopathologie KölnBonn, Bonn, Germany
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Acneiform adverse drug reactions (ADRs) appear within weeks to months after the initiation of a new medication. As opposed to acne vulgaris, they typically present monomorphic inflammatory lesions, may involve atypical, non-seborrheic body sites and may arise outside the usual age range of any acne subtype. A wide range of drugs can trigger the eruption of acneiform ADRs with targeted therapies used in oncology (e.g. epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors) carrying the highest risk. More recently, an increasing incidence of acneiform ADRs has been observed with the advent of januskinase inhibitors and TYK2-inhibitors now being used in a wide range of inflammatory conditions. Many times, symptomatic treatment rather than discontinuation of the causative drug is feasible, particularly when the medication is essential for managing a serious underlying condition. Close cooperation between dermatologists and prescribing specialists is essential to manage cutaneous side effects enabling maintenance of the best available therapeutic regimen.
Keywords: Acne, Acneiform eruption, Adverse drug reactions (ADRs), Rosacea, Skin-directed therapy, targeted therapies
Received: 16 Dec 2025; Accepted: 20 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Ulrich, Drexler, Berneburg, Kurz and Niebel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dennis Niebel
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