Acne is perhaps the cruelest thing that can happen to teenagers. It attacks their face which is the most visible part of the body at an age when they are the subject of gaze for many around them. That is the reason why many teenagers who suffer from acne also suffer from serious mental stress and depression.

Because of this, an international team of researchers that included scientists from the Harvard Medical School, Boston and University Medical College, Tibet, decided that the relation between acne and depression needs to be further investigated. The intriguing new paper of the team, published recently in the BMC Public Health, an open-access journal, confirms that the acne is directly related to anxiety and depression and also that the mental distress in the teenagers may also contribute to worsen their skin’s condition.

A dermatologist at University of Oslo, Norway, Jon Halvorsen, led the study which was launched by the researchers in the year 2004. This study invited all the 18 and 19 year old teenagers in Oslo. They were asked for answering some questions regarding zits and other things. The participants completed the questionnaires about severity of their acne condition along with how much depression and anxiety they experience. They also record what they normally eat and whether they drink and smoke. Apart from that, the researchers also collected the socio-economic data on the teenagers from the nation’s central information gathering agency.

The results of the study show that the mental stress levels that the teenagers reported were strongly related to how much acne they had according to them, independent of some of the other factors such as lifestyle and diet. About 19% of the teenagers who said that they suffer from symptoms of depression and anxiety also said that they are suffering from acne compare to only 12% with no mental stress. Boys with anxiety and depression were 68% more apt to report acne than their peers who had no such symptoms. Girls who have mental stress were twice as apt as those who did not have acne.

For the first time, a linear relationship has been found between pimples and mood. It is possible that the relationship simply means that the teenagers who have feelings of depression are more apt to report that they are suffering from bad acne, even if they are not. But some previous studies have shown that dermatologists also agree with the self-reports of the teenagers’ acne condition. Some anxious and depressed teenagers in the study of Norway may have exaggerated their condition of acne, but it is not likely that most of them did.

There is a theory which suggests that people who have mental distress tend to eat more junk food. One of the teen lore mentions that if a person over-indulges in potato chips and chocolate, pimples will be exacerbated. According to the study, this is only a myth although they have supported the notion that diet also plays a key role. The study also found that the girls who ate few vegetables tend to have worse acne than those who eat lots of green vegetables. But as far as the boys are concerned, diet is entirely an irrelevant factor.

The authors of the study have offered a few hypotheses. For example, mental stress may lead to stimulation in the growth of the nerve fibers that are present near the sebaceous glands. This contributes to an increase in the production of sebum, the fatty substance which combines with the cell debris and the dead skin cells to from pustules and black heads. This is an unproven theory but previous research upon the effects of acne drugs suggested that the theory might be true. For example, it is a known fact that anti-depressants are able to improve acne conditions. We are also aware that Accutane (isotretinoin), a drug widely used for treating acne, is also associated with increase in the depression, although no casual links have been established so far.

There are some obvious shortcomings in this new study, especially that it is entirely dependent on self-reports from self-selected group of respondents. More researches have to be done to understand the relation between pimples and mental illness, and also the main cause of bad cases of acne.