Objective: The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine the most common treatment classes based on drug class and the describe the differences in prescribing methods across age groups. Methods: Information was collected from the PharMetrics Integrated Patient-centric Database, a large collection of administrative claims. At the time of this analysis in 2004, there were more than 80 public and private healthcare plans included in the database, representing approximately 9.6 million unique patients. Analysis was performed using the Total Resource Utilization (TRU) Benchmarks process, a descriptive methodology organizes and separates information, from a third-party database, into accessible benchmarks for comparison. These results were then factored against age groups. The age group break down is as follows: 12-14, 15-17, 18-24, and 24-35. Results: The most commonly prescribed medications in the United States for acne were: New generation retinoid products, benzoyl peroxide-based combo products , topical corticosteroids by Rx only, Topical antibiotics, common topical retinoid products, oral anti-biotics, as well as antidepressants and benzodiazepines in some age categories. The age breakdown was as follows: Ages 12-14: Oral antibiotics (38.8%), Benzoyl peroxide-based products (32.7%), New generation retinoid products (30.1%), Topical antibiotics (21.7%), Common topical retinoid products (20.7%) Ages 15-17: Oral antibiotics (55.0%) Benzoyl peroxide-based products (32.0%) New generation retinoid products (31.3%) Topical antibiotics (21.3%), Common topical retinoid products (21.1%) Ages 18-24: Oral antibiotics (52.6%), New generation retinoid products (28.3%), Benzoyl peroxide-based products (26.8%), Oral contraceptives (24.8%), Topical antibiotics (20.4%) Ages 25-35: Oral antibiotics (44.2%), Oral contraceptives (33.0%), Topical antibiotics (22.1%), Benzoyl peroxide-based products (21.5%), New generation retinoid products (20.1%). Conclusion: It was determined that significant differences by medication type do in fact occur in all the different age groups. The discrepancies can be clearly observed and on physician to physician bases, one can determine if their own particular prescribing method is appropriate.