NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Laser treatment isn't effective enough to be a solo first-line treatment for acne, although it may be worthwhile for some people to try, researchers conclude based on a study they conducted.

"My overall impression of this device was that the results in general were fairly underwhelming for acne, with some room for optimism," Dr. Jeffrey S. Orringer of the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor told Reuters Health.

Most acne sufferers were happier with the treatment than with standard approaches like topical creams or pills, despite its painfulness, and laser treatments also produced a transient reduction in blackheads, Orringer and his team found.

Many studies of laser therapy for acne have been designed so that it can be difficult to tell whether the treatment is having an effect, or if the patient is simply experiencing natural fluctuations in acne severity, the researchers explain in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

To avoid this problem, the researchers recruited 46 patients and gave them three laser treatments on just one side of the face. The doctors who assessed the severity of acne and number of lesions during the course of treatment weren't aware which side of the face was being treated.

Results showed that patients experienced a transient improvement in the number of blackheads on the treated side of their face, but there was no difference in the number of pimples. However, they did report that their skin felt less oily on the treated side.

Given that there is little that can be done to treat acne at the early, blackhead stage, the laser treatment could turn out to have preventive benefits, Orringer noted.

Nearly three-quarters of patients in the study said they preferred laser treatment to traditional therapies, while about the same percentage said treatments produced at least moderate discomfort. Patients were given topical anesthetic before receiving laser treatment.

Orringer concludes that the therapy wasn't "a total washout," given patient satisfaction and improvements in blackheads. He also said he wouldn't rule out the possibility that other types of lasers or different therapeutic regimens could turn out to be more effective.