Accutane Long Term Side Effects (Page 97) (Top voted first)

I have a son that took accutane 60 mg a day for six months in a row three years ago. Now after many trips to doctors over strange medical problems, it seems accuatne is the culprit medication that has caused servere joint and muscle pain, severe dry lips, redness in face, eye infections of own immune system attacking itself, systems of osteoarthritis in both shoulders, both wrist and right hand, blood in stool, possible hair loss, abnormal liver function test results in AST and ALT. My son went from being a high school football and track athlete while taking this medication three years ago to someone that is in constant pain just washing a car. After I have researched this drug extensively, I can't believe that the FDA allows this drug originally made for cancer patients to be marketed for teenagers with acne. All one has to do is look online what vitamin A overdose does to someone and then you have the results of what this medication has done to my son. This drug needs to be taken off them market ASAP and the drug companies that make it need to compensate all teenagers that they have possible ruined their future. Shame on them! What is going on here?

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I am 30 and I have been dealing with acne on and off since I was a freshman in high school; sometimes mild and sometimes severe. Over the years I have literally tried every cream and medication you can think of except for Accutane because I was afraid of the side effects. Recently, I got a new dermatologist and he recommend that I take Accutane. My doctor said that all of the side effects are completely blown out of proportion and that there have been a lot of medical studies published in the last couple of years that debunk a lot of the supposed long term effects. They have also altered Accutane where it isn't stored in your liver anymore which means you can have alcohol in moderation now. I feel like a lot of people don't realize this and if you look at all of the newer statistics, for the really harsh side effects, Accutane has only less than 5% chance of causing any of those and all of the side effects are temporary. Sorry, but I am very skeptical about the long term effects of Acctuane.

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Ladies and Gentleman. I'm sorry about the conditions you and your children are suffering with, but I would like to counsel caution. Many of you are categorically blaming these conditions on accutane. Many of these conditions are extremely common (depression, Dyspepsia, IBS, idiopathic myalgias and arthralgias) and occur in loads of people who never took accutane. I accept that there is possibility that you are right and that you would never have got these conditions if you hadnt taken the drug, but i want you in turn to accept that its also possible that you would have got this condition anyway even if you hadnt taken accutane. Btw my argument doesn't apply to the people who have long term redness, xeroderma and cheilitis - I accept that those are probably due to the drug.

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I took accutane when I was 16 and am 25 now. Haven't had any problems at all. Haven't even had to use facewash since I got off it it cleared within days and I had really bad acne, I would highly reccomend it to anyone with bad acne. If my future children have acne I'll put them on it as well.

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It's been wonderful for me. I wish all of you sue happy gold diggers would just stop! You knew there would be risk of side effect, as with all drugs.

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Re: Ernest (# 1901)

Some people are more sensitive to medications than others, but I have never had that problem. I am about to finish my first course of Accutane and my biggest complaint is chapped lips and some dry skin. In fact, there was mix up at the pharmacy and they gave me less of a what I needed, so I ran out. For 2 weeks I was off Accutane and my chapped lips and dry skin completely went away. Accutane does cause some side effects, but all are temporary and there is not sufficient medical evidence to support that Accutane is the root cause of all these peoples problems. Millions upon millions of people have taken Accutane and they are completely fine. I have also had several friends who have taken Accutane and had zero issue. You can call me whatever you like, but I have done the research and there is no conclusive study out there that supports any of these claims. Next thing they are going to be complaining than Accutane is the reason they can't hold a job, give me a break.

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I'm sorry to hear about your son, it's not like everyone has permanent side effects like these. Furthermore, your doctor should have warned you and your son of the possible side effects of accutane. Not to mention there are numerous warnings that come with the medication itself. When you agreed to put your son on accutane you also acknowledged the possible long-lasting side effects. I'm sorry it ended up poorly but there are even more dangerous drugs out there that are approved by the FDA - drugs that can potentially kill. And in the long run accutane appears to do more good than it does damage for patients taking it. Perhaps the doctor prescribed a larger dose than they should have, in which case at least some of the blame should be cast onto them. But regardless, you should have known the side effects before you made the choice to have your son put on accutane.

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I must say . If you tell someone they are going to get bad side effects, the stress of those comments if they are already on the drug has its own effects. Telling someone they are 100 percent for sure going to come out with serious health problems is irresponsible and incorrect unless we know their health personally. Many of us have had negative side effects and At some point we all learn from this mistake, I hope they get rid of the drug someday! But our role as adults now is to inform not force and scare. That has its own health effects. The mind is so powerful!

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oil girl/jen c.,

I see you on alot of sites bashing accutane all the time. How many do you go on? The funny thing is you have a different story all the time. From what I understand if you experienced a problem that serious you should stop taking it. So why do you say drastic stuff to people implying that accutane can kill you.

Im just saying you made your own bed by going on with accutane when you felt these side effects so dont scare off people with all your scare monger stories. Now if you read this I know you'll get defensive i have seen how much people you disrespect people on acne.org who disagree with you. So I wont acknowledge it. Good day.

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I have been on Accutane for 2 and half months and the worst thing that has happened to me is that my skin has gotten dry and my lips have gotten severely chapped. You do know what Accutane is right? It is basically just an extremely high concentration of vitamin A. I have had over a dozen friends take it and none of them of had any side effects. I'm really sorry about your son, but some of the symptoms you have described are not symptoms of Accutane. Furthermore, it's important to note that all long term side effects go away by themselves. It's easy to put the blame on Accutane, but the symptoms just don't fit. I really hope your son gets better.

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What do you mean “how could it possibly be given to teens” because it works!!! Maybe it didn’t work for your son but it works wonders for many other people. Just because it didn’t work for your son doesn’t mean you should hold a grudge against it. If you read the packaging, it tells you what can happen, the internet can tell you it can have severe side effects. Yet you took the risk to take it. Things happen, everyone reacts differently

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All the comments here seem to be very negative towards the use of Isotretinoin. However, my guess is that the people giving negative advices about Accutane in general have never taken it themselves and are solely focusing on the scare stories, or they are hypochondriac people blaming the drug and creating horror stories out of nothing (this site is the case).

The most rapid and effective way to get rid of acne is proven to be oral ISOTRETINOIN.

I was on Roaccutane for severe acne and it was the best thing that happened: it forever cleared my face up and I suffered no side effects, apart from dry lips, skin and eyes, but it rapidly went away after finishing the 6 month treatment course. However, I was a bit scared about taking it at first, but I had no reasons to be scared. Yes, there are side effects but carefully monitored there is no problem The only condition that is NOT allowed is you or your partner trying to conceive while on the medication and for a month or two after.
But that said, lots of the other “terrible” stuff are just anecdotal and irrelevant. Anyway, these days the doctor will start you off on a low dose at first and work-up later. Normally, you will be on it for 3-6 months and in most cases your spots will all be gone for a good 20-30 years +. They monitor your blood throughout your treatment including checking for cholesterol levels; rightly administrated there should not be a problem and one could stop at any time.

You didn’t understand that "ALL THE SIDE EFFECTS OF ISOTRETINOIN ARE TEMPORARY, SOME OF THEM SERIOUS, BUT ALWAYS TEMPORARY". THERE’S NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE OF ISOTRETINOIN CAUSING DEPRESSION OR PERMANENT PROBLEMS.

I know the anxiety that severe acne causes, I have tried everything to cure it and nothing worked. The truth is that having severe acne can prevent a teenager from meeting boys/girls and that can be very depressing in itself. A teenage mind is usually unstable because of physical development and more prone to depression. If this drug was that dangerous then why would doctors be prescribing it!?
When ingested, vitamin A is converted into its 3 active forms, one of them is “retinoic acid”, which is a naturally occurring substance in the human body, so its effects are not comparable to the devastating effects of chemotherapy drugs (many of their commercial names finish with “-ab”).

Besides, isotretinoin has a half-life of 22 hours in the human body, so nobody can say that it causes permanent side effects.
Whose advice would one person rather take- a doctor with a ph.D who knows all about dermatology inside out and the corrective treatment required, or some suggestible kids and/or hypochondriac people? As I said, there are no scare stories about this drug, only some occasional anecdotes; the only things that are scary about all this are your hypochondria and EVEN WORSE YOUR ATTEMPT TO DEPRIVE PEOPLE OF THEIR RIGHT TO MAKE AN INFORMED CHOICE TO CURE THEIR ACNE, BECAUSE YOU ARE SPREADING ONLY RUMORS AND LIES ON THE WEB. THAT’S ABSOLUTELY NOT FAIR OF YOU.

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My sister-in-law passed away last year of stomach and liver cancer. She was on accutane for a long term. I believe her immune system was compromised by accutance and eventually caused her cancer. Are any attorneys handling cases of this such.

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WOW! all you people who took accutane and have all these side effects in the future...guess what they tell you that before you start taking it!! I took accutane knowing about the long term side effects and yeah there were side effects that the doctor told me would happen and its not like you can't read up about the stuff on the internet if you cared about your children you should have researched the effects of accutane BEFORE you let your kid take it thats what my mom did and she left the decision up to me. You should look up every medication you take that has any kind of side effects.

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