Accutane Long Term Side Effects (Page 5)
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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 After I have researched this drug extensively, I can't believe that the FDA allows this drug originally made for cancer patients to be marketed for teenagers with acne.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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REPORT

I'm afraid we're talking about 20 yrs or more when this ' wonder ' drug came out . There wasn't the same technology around then as there is now , to be able to do research on . Also if your child is 16yrs old they can go to a doctor of their choosing and not have to get your permission . When your at that age , all you care about is how awful your face looks , your not thinking about years down the track and all the side effects that will catch up with you . That's what's so good about this forum , we can warn the younger guys about the dangers of taking this drug !

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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news when it comes to Roaccutane but give it time , it's coming . I haven't came across 1 person that hasn't had side effects from this drug , eventually .

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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but give it time , it's coming . I haven't came across 1 person that hasn't had side effects from this drug , eventually .

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Give it time , it's coming . Sorry !

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Yes you are . Please do not go on this drug ! Listen to what everyone is telling you . It will affect your life in ways you haven't even thought about , years down the track . Trust me , it's just not worth it . You will regret it !

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HD, get an ultrasound of your liver / gallbladder & take milk thistle or Shisandra. Drugs can affect the liver, these help it restore itself after the damage. For anyone taking this drug! But don't take it while on the drug cause it'll clear it out of your liver too quickly, and make taking the drugs a little pointless.

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Hello I just read your post about accutane and Sjogrens and think I am in the same boat. I took accutane at age 26 because I was getting large cysts. Then around age 27 so after the accutane my contacts felt dry and that progressed so that age 29 I was completely debilitated by the dry eyes. Now I am a 58 year old female who has tried everything. Plugs at first then went on to have all 4 tear ducts csuterized just had Lipiflow a month ago seems to be kicking in. Would love to hear about other accurate users with permanent dry eyes. But it could also be upsetting. Did anyone else develop dry eyes AFTER stopping accurate?

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I was prescribed Accutane at age 11, and truly believe it caused me health problems years later. I was not told about the possible psychological effects and had a family history of schizophrenia to start. For years after taking the drug my skin was constantly pink and super sensitive. It looked like a sunburn that wasn't going away. The derm was just like wow you have dry skin! and didn't even seem concerned. It was so bad. A few years later I ended up with pretty severe anxiety and depression, so bad I had to drop out of school and homeschool. Im convinced it is what lead to my IBS, I literally can't eat anything without feeling yucky. To top that off, after years of clear skin out of nowhere I got cystic acne in my late teens. Im having to do the work now to clear my skin: Diet, stress relief, hormone balancing with a naturopath, and high end skincare. I would give any $$$ amount to go back and never go on that drug!

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My son took Accutane for 6 months when he was 15 years old and yes it did clear up his acne. He is now 20 years old and feels like he is 50! He too was an athlete and straight A student before and for years has complained of fatigue, weakness in his muscles no matter how much he works out, erectile dysfunction, low testosterone, depression. After Accutane he seemed like a different person-exhibited OCD like behavior and has trouble concentrating. Does anyone have a doctor that understands the long term side effects of Accutane and can help him? I know there are legal cases for the IBS that it causes but what about depression, ED and OCD? He/we implore parents to not allow your child to take this drug.

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Hello, I just wanted to share my story with accutane to spread the word on it's side effects because I wish I had done further research before I took the drug to clear my skin. When I first made the decision to go on accutane I was aware of some of the possible side effects, I went to a dermatologist at the sunshine coast and he told me through his ten years of treating patients with acne he has only had 7 patients with minor side effects and that the odds were in my favour of my acne clearing up with the only side effect most likely being dry skin. I was on accutane for 3 months taking 20 mg per day after three months I got pink eye. After that I took a break from accutane however the problems continued with back aches and head aches so I kept off the accutane. My dermatologist tried to convince me it was unlikely that the accutane was the cause for my pink eye however I made the decision not to go back on accutane. Even after I stopped the treatment my problems continued with stomach problems, bloating, extreme fatigue. 6 months after stopping accutane and I still have these problems although with healthy eating, plenty of water and vitamins they are very slowly easing and i hope they continue to do so. I believe with every ounce of my body that accutane caused these problems and that accutane is a form of poison that dermatologists are making profit from, and making it at the expense of your health and well being. I consider myself lucky that I wasn't on the accutane longer and my prayers and sympathy goes out to those who have had far worst problems than mine that I have read about on this page and other sites. Basically the chances are accutane will cause you problems. Ones that will surface even possibly only after you have stopped the treatment. And don't believe your dermatologists so called "statistics" because there are far more people that have suffered with side effects from accutane than you realize. It is literally poisoning your body to achieve clear skin. And I know how hard it is living with acne, but please don't destroy your health in the process of trying to gain clear skin because accutane is nothing but bad news for your body it will slowly destroy your health and immune system.

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Is anyone experiencing liver/gallbladder pain?

Hi. I've been off accutane for about 9 months now and only took it for 6 weeks. I've had lots of problem come and go, usually on a rotation, stomach problems and muscle ache and fatigue persist. Recently, I started getting liver ache. Started in a gallbladder area and now it is all over my liver, turning around my rib cage to the back, back hurts as well. I've had liver function test done a few month ago, all normal, and now waiting for an ultra sound, but it's taking ages. I have a very healthy diet.
Does any of you experience liver area pain. Is it inflammation?

Thanks a million

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They give you all of these warnings before you start the drug. The doctors are very in depth about what it could possibly do to you. You take it at your own risk. As for all the pain I ass will had it all. I took joint pills and creatine and it helped a great deal. It made me not able to work out hard anymore, I was in so much pain and this made it better.

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KJB- The problem seems to be dermatologists downplaying the potential risks as being associated with Accutane, but not being a result of Accutane, in the reported cases of many side effects. There is also the grievous misconception that one must simply stop the drug and side effects go away. ...This isn't fully explained in the warnings.

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when I was given accutane, there was nothing to sign about the drug. This was in 1984 the drug had just been found to help acne in cancer patients as a chemo drug.If someone would have said that I would have to live with this pain or with someone elses kidney because of accutane I would have told them to shove it where the sun don't shine. I would have never taken it. The fact that someone had a chance to read the drug monograph and still decided to take the poison is crazy to me.

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I took accutane & now have fibromyalgia & IBS. I never attributed it to Accutane until finding this websight. Nuts!!

On a side note, I chose to take that risk by getting on it! For anyone to say, "I'm appalled that this or that happened!" Is crazy to me. They handed me a HUGE BOOK of possible side effects that were possible. After I read it, I initialed and signed LOTS of pages! Long term it's sadly only helped my acne by maybe 40%!

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Ya, this isn't good. I'm really starting to think they are related.

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I took retina a in the 80"s. Now I too have fibro, digestive probs, migraines and terrible joint pain. Humm. Could be related

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You have a histamine intolerance that causes the flushing. Copper is needed to metabolize histamines. Anemia most likely because of the same copper deficiency. Please get a rbc blood copper test. Accutane up regulates ATP7A...depleting the cells and liver of copper.

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I took accutane only few days and small dosage (5mg per day); i stopped it because i couldn't cope with the side effects (anemia, tiredness, joint paint...) some weeks after stop it i've begun to have facial flushing, over the month the flushs increase at a stage which they degrade my daily life deeply (imagine you can't talk to someone without turn red constantly...)

over the years the multiple daily flushs create a baseline redness by stimulating the development of blood vessels, the more i flush and the more i'm red and the more i'm red, the more i'm prone to flush and blush... it's a vicious circle...

i'm able to relieve my face by the use of laser (especially vbeam) but the flushs return always and i must do session every years

it has been 5years and a half and the flushs are always here and doesn't seem to decrease, they have strongly disable me and i can say my life will nothing to do with my actual life if i've not taken this POISON

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Yes to ibs and joint pain.

Sam-e

And COPPER. Your son has a copper deficiency from accutane. Get a rbc blood test done. 1.5mg Cu 2x a day.

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