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How long does it take Tazorac to work?

Medically reviewed by Melisa Puckey, BPharm. Last updated on Nov 15, 2023.

How long does it take for Tazorac to work on acne or psoriasis?

Official answer

by Drugs.com

There is little information available from clinical trials as to how soon Tazorac cream starts working for acne. The full positive effect of Tazorac cream on acne may not be seen for a number of weeks and in some cases acne may get worse before it gets better.


In the clinical trials instead of looking at how fast Tazorac cream works when treating acne, they looked at how effective it is at treating acne after 12 weeks. The trial results show that after 12 weeks Tazorac 0.1% cream was 20% more effective than a placebo cream at reducing acne lesions.

How well does Tazorac gel to work for Acne?

In a clinical trial when Tazorac 0.1% gel was used daily to treat mild to moderate facial acne for 12 weeks, the results showed Tazorac 0.1% gel was 19% more effective at decreasing the acne lesions compared to the placebo gel.

How long does it take for Tazorac Cream to work for Plaque Psoriasis?

In clinical trials Tazorac 0.1% cream starts to reduce stable plaque psoriasis in the first week of treatment, and the second week when using Tazorac 0.05% cream.

In clinical trials using Tazorac 0.05% cream for plaque psoriasis after 12 weeks the Tazorac 0.05% cream group had 18% more patients having a clinical success compared to the placebo cream group.

In the same clinical trial another plaque psoriasis patient group used Tazorac 0.1% cream on their plaque psoriasis. By 12 weeks the Tazorac 0.1% cream group had 15% more patients having had clinical success, compared to the placebo cream group.

Bottom line:

  • Tazorac cream starts to reduce stable plaque psoriasis in the first 1 to 2 weeks of treatment.
  • There is little information available on how long it takes for Tazorac cream or gel to work on acne.
  • Clinical trials on Tazorac look at how effective it has been at treating acne or plaque psoriasis after 12 weeks.

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