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The number of patients with acne in France is unknown. During a Winter period (October, 1985 to January, 1986), 31 dermatologists in private practice in 5 different regions (Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Rennes and Strasbourg) saw 4,597 cases of acne among 28,714 patients (16.0 p. 100); 293 (6.4 p. 100) of these acne patients had severe acne as defined in the official authorization to launch the drug isotretinoin on the French market: "Nodular and/or cystic acne and severe chronic acne resistant to the main conventional treatments". The patients' mean age was 24.0 +/- 6.7 years, and 66 p. 100 were male (39 p. 100 were students or grammar school pupils); they had the disease for a mean period of 8.2 +/- 5.9 years, and they consulted a dermatologist 4.15 times per annum on average. By extrapolating these figures to the total number of dermatologists practising in France, it could be assumed that in any given year about 17,738 to 19,333 patients with severe acne consulted dermatologists in private practice. Each dermatologist selected at random the record-cards of 4 of his severe acne patients (in all, 121 records) and gave those who came to consult him a letter explaining the purpose of the study and asking them to accept being questioned on the cost and repercussions of their disease. Sixty patients were interrogated by a psychosociologist, 27 accepted to be interrogated every 2 weeks for 2.5 months. The data collected were: i) number of times the patient consulted a general practitioner, a specialist, a surgeon, or a member of the paramedical professions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)