Roaccutane

blue powder

Started roaccutane about 8 days ago, dermatologist also put me on an antibiotic, E-mysin I think. Been on that for a good two weeks before started Roaccutane and still am, I think this was to reduce breaking out. That's my question, I have actually started to break out since starting the accutane, just want to know know how long this usually lasts?

Any other advice you guys can recount from your experiences would be neat, I did a search but not a lot came up. Thanks, guys.

supabeast

Accutane takes a couple weeks to kick in. You’ll know it’s working when the horrible side effects make you wonder why you started taking it to begin with.

KalTorak

supabeast wrote: »

Accutane takes a couple weeks to kick in. You’ll know it’s working when the horrible side effects make you wonder why you started taking it to begin with.

Dry lips?

Dry lips.

Accutane does work tho, took it for 6 months and I'm almost completely acne free, 3 years later.

Midshipman

Accutane takes about a month or two before things stop getting worse and start getting better. However, if you stick it out for the whole 6 months (or whatever length you are proscribed), you get to live the rest of your life with just a fraction of the acne that you would have otherwise been stuck with.

Boredom

edit: and, crap, I was really groggy when I read the OP and didn't notice you started it already. My bad. Disgregard me.

I'm just going to chime in with: everyone I know who's taken it - even girls - have experienced moderate to serious balding and hair problems.

Personally, I took a course of it 13 months ago and my hair is only starting to grow back now after having experienced massive shedding and hair abnormalities for the longest time. I have straight hair and my hair would get twisted/curly when I experienced shedding. Right now there's a massive amount of new hairs popping up all over my scalp, but many other people who've taken it have had no such luck and suffered permanent damage.

More important though, is that it gave me intracranial hypertension. That wasn't nice at all, not only because it's torture in itself, but the treatment for it was steroids which created a chain reaction of conditions that I'm only recovering from now. It goes something like this: periodic MRIs, steroids -> heightened h. pylori infection thanks to steroids -> 2 failed courses of triple therapy and I'm on quadruple therapy right now (last day today, actually).


Now, by all means consider accutane if your acne is really serious. It's only approved for serious, scarring, cystic acne, but a lot of doctors get commission for pushing it on patients (and "here, take this 1 magic pill" is easier for some of the lazier types), so if your acne is moderate I'd advise you to consider other options that carry less risk.

For moderate/non-scarring acne I wouldn't consider it at all though (and wouldn't have taken it had I done my research before blindly trusting the doctor). Just FYI my doctor denied everything when it came to the hair loss effect and said he warned me about the intracranial hypertension to cover his ass (which he hadn't).

webguy20

To counterbalance the bad things about accutane. I took it about 11 years ago and the only side effects were extremely dry lips and the inability to sweat. My Acne cleared up and ive been mostly Acne free since, except for the occasional breakout. I was the stereotypical pizza face before.

Make sure to buy lots of lip balm and hand lotion. Id also, depending on how bad your acne is and whether its on your body, but switch to a body wash, and not soap. It'll help keep the skin that's not breaking out moisturized.

Axon

Took accutane about 7 years ago now. No real side effects - I think I've had the same mild "sweating" effects some have mentioned and Webguy made note of - I can and do sweat easily, but on occasion I feel an itching sensation, as if I am about to sweat, but do not.

Hair loss: I was losing hair before accutane, sadly - my dad was bald as fuck at 22, so I'm happy to have what I have at 29 now. So, I saw no increase of shedding or male pattern hair loss at all and still do not to this day. So no, I didn't see any hair loss related to the drug. I think a lot of people take it, get older, and start to lose, and THEN go blame the drug.

It's a personal decision to take this drug, you know? The potential side effects can be scary. But I do know it cleared me up beautifully - I have never had such clear skin or such low oil in my hair as when I was taking the drug. Is your hair greasy as hell when you wake up, no matter what? That stopped happening to me when I was taking accutane. I get pimples on the back of my neck too, hard cysts - totally stopped when I was on the drug. They're back now....I've considered taking it again.

Midshipman

I'd never heard of the hair-loss side effect before. The only side effect I experienced (aside from the obvious dry skin) was a period of a few months where I experienced some mild pain in my shins (like when I would go jogging on pavement). It wasn't enough to prevent me from exercising, but it was unpleasent.

Cojones

For the most part Isotretinoin's well tolerated with the great majority of patients fully completing the prescribed treatment. Suggested links between an increased incidence of depression and the administration of isotretinoin are likely to be false.

Oh, and don't get pregnant while taking isotretinoin. Don't even think about it.

Thanatos

Everyone reacts differently to any given drug. There's a lot of confirmation bias in side effects, where you're going to see way more people talking about how nasty the side effects are than saying "oh, I took it and I was just fine." Mostly because people don't talk about drugs that work fine with no side effects, but they talk about their nasty side effects.

For instance, when I take an opiate, it makes me sick to my stomach, and just hella groggy. I don't get the pleasant feelings most people seem to. Does this mean I don't recommend them if someone is in serious pain? Hell no. I just don't recommend them for me.

The best thing you can do is make sure you keep in touch with your doctor, and let him/her know about any side effects you experience.

Capncrunch7

I did a course of accutane about six years ago for some bad cystic acne on my chest and back. Four or five of those months I had constant chapped lips, but if you keep a tube of aquaphor or blistex goo on you at ALL times, your mouth will be just slightly below 'fine'. I did get some bad peeling and dryness on my hands and junk though, which was wildly unpleasant, but that came and went between weeks.

On the plus side, six years later I can get away with not washing my face or even showering for DAYS without breaking out anywhere on my body.

Be careful what vitamins you take when you're on it though. I took a few Airborne tablets 3 months in, and my monthly bloodtest showed that I had done a number on my liver (no permanent damage, though).

Overall, I recommend it if you've tried all the other options and still have acne problems beyond the occasional breakout. Plus, one or two pills a day is a LOT easier than an assortment of wipes and creams and all that noise.

Another interesting thing to note, my first few weeks my acne got MUCH worse, with a couple nasty cysts popping up on my face where I had never really had acne before. My doctor explained it as the sebaceous glands shrinking and having to force all the ick out of them as quickly as possible. Fun!

rfalias

Avoid any excess/supplemental vitamin-A while on it as well.

blue powder

Thanks for all the advice, guys, more in welcome!

Just out of interest, did any of you guys drink whilst on it? Or if you did was it just one or two drinks kind of thing? I don't plan to drink at all whilst on it as I've been told not to, and if i do just one standard drink. I assume it's because your liver is busy trying to absorb all the excess vitamin A?

TheRealBadger

I was on a course of it during my first year at uni so, yeah, I drank a lot while on it. It's possible this is why I went through hell with the side effects but I don't think it really made much difference. If you're only having a couple of drinks then you'll be fine.

Also, I just want to say that this:

supabeast wrote:

Accutane takes a couple weeks to kick in. You’ll know it’s working when the horrible side effects make you wonder why you started taking it to begin with.

Is one of the best ways I've heard it summed up. Side effects can be horrible but it works fucking wonders.

Synthetic Orange

Hahah, dry lips. At least those you can moisturize in public.

Other dry orfices are more diffucult to take care of.

winter_combat_knight

Took it for a year (5 yrs ago), took a couple months before it had really cleared up. Never had any problems since.

Side effects: Sore back occasionally, dry lips, dry skin, sometimes muscle pain.