People with eczema needed to help a study on how long to use steroid creams for | Research News and Media

People with eczema are being invited to take part in a new research study that explores how best to control eczema flare-ups.

The ‘Keep Control of Eczema’ study, in partnership with researchers from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and the University of Nottingham, is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

An eczema flare-up is often experienced as intense itching that needs treatment to control the inflammation in the skin.

When treating eczema flare-ups, it is not always clear how long people should treat it for. Some people find it hard to know when to stop using their steroid creams. If they stop too soon, the eczema may come back quickly, but using them for too long can lead to unwanted side-effects.

This study will test if it is helpful to give specific advice about how long to treat flare-ups for. It is testing the idea that treating for slightly longer could help keep eczema controlled for longer.

The Keep Control of Eczema Study is a randomised, controlled trial, which needs to recruit 450 people with eczema (aged one year and above). The study is being conducted online so there are no study visits and no need to travel to take part.

Participants will use their usual steroid creams during the study. To be eligible, they must have used their steroid creams at least three times in the last eight weeks.

Participants are randomised to either a specific advice group - ‘Treat for longer’ or the ‘Treat as usual’ group - use steroid creams during a flare-up as you normally would.

The people taking part in the study will be asked to fill in questionnaires weekly to assess their use of steroid creams and how their eczema has been.

Kim Thomas, Professor of Applied Dermatology Research in the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham, and co-lead for the project, said:

“Topical corticosteroids have been used to treat eczema for over 60 years. I find it amazing that this simple question about how long you should use steroid creams for to get best results has never been tested before. This study is long overdue, and I’m delighted that we will finally be able to answer this important question for people living with eczema.”

The Keep Control Study is part of a wider project – the Rapid Eczema Trials research project - that aims to answer important questions on how to manage eczema. The Rapid Eczema Trials project has created a community of citizen scientists who are interested in answering questions about eczema. Together, these citizen scientists have prioritised and co-designed a series of online research studies to address questions that are important to them.

People with eczema, their families and healthcare professional who treat them are encouraged to join the community from across the UK and over 1,000 people have already signed up.

Amanda Roberts, a patient with eczema, said: “It is so exciting to see citizen scientist creating studies that answer important questions that really matter to those living with eczema. This is being done through high quality randomised trials that would not be funded through other means.”

The Rapid Eczema trials research project is led by researchers at the University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, and is being delivered in collaboration with another three UK Universities (Southampton, Bristol, Birmingham City, Imperial) and the Nottingham Clinical Trials Unit.

More information on how to sign up for the study can be found here: https://rapideczematrials.org/keep-control-study/