Accutane Long Term Side Effects (Page 63)

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 After I have researched this drug extensively, I can't believe that the FDA allows this drug originally made for cancer patients to be marketed for teenagers with acne.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 know this thread hasn't been used in nearly three years, but I saw a story on the news tonight about Accutane causing issues such as these and put two and two together. Last January (2012), I began taking a small dosage of Accutane. My acne wasn't too bad, just stubborn, and we had exhausted all other possibilities so we gave it a shot. I experienced some of the more common side effects, mainly dry skin, and knew it was from Accutane but didn't worry about it. Well, around August of 2012, going in to my senior year of high school, I began experiencing severe nausea in the morning and any time I had anything relatively acidic. Come fall break, the nausea became more consistent and aggressive, but was still bearable. One week into the 2nd quarter of my senior year, I was at a birthday party and was hit immediately with overwhelming nausea. The color completely drained from my face and I couldn't see straight. The next day I went to go see my doctor, who thought the issue was related to my gallbladder. All tests came back negative and we moved on to other possibilities. I saw an ENT, Cardiologist, Neurologist, and Gastroenterologist. The ENT said I had Vertigo, the Cardiologist said I had Disautonamia (spelling?), the Neurologist said I had Abdominal Migraines (among other things that I cannot remember), and the Gastroenterologist said I had a little-known disease called SIBO. After enduring treatments for all of these diseases/disorders, we found treating me for SIBO was most effective. However, the medication to treat SIBO is called XIFAXAN. XIFAXAN is a very powerful drug used to treat liver diseases, and runs $700 a prescription. Because this issue involved not my liver but my intestines, insurance would not cover it. Therefore, we had to purchase XIFAXAN ourselves every 2 weeks as $700 for 3 months. I was not diagnosed with SIBO until the end of November so I didn't start treatment until the beginning of December. I missed the entire 2nd quarter of my senior year in high school and, going into the 4th quarter, am still in the process of making up all of my work. The doctors were never 100% sold on SIBO because it's very hard to diagnose. The only reason I continued with the treatment is because of its success. I did not think to put together Accutane and these symptoms. I will definitely tell my Gastro doctor about it and see what he says. Do you guys have any thoughts?

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I put my daughter on Accutane at 15 years old for 6 months.She had no problems at the time but now at age 21 and for the past 3 years her cystic acne has returned (not as bad as before Accutane) and she has severe stomach and intestinal issues that we can't find treatment for.She has been tested for EVERYTHING!!! BEWARE OF ACCUTANE remember accutane is a chemotherapy treatment which doctors never say the actual word "CHEMOTHERAPY DRUG" but it is.Had I known I never would have put her on it.

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Jim it isnt sugar and chocolate that causes acne.My daughter had cystic acne in her teen years and she wasnt allowed to fill her face with sugar and chocolat and fast food like you say.She ate very healthy and had a great diet and still broke out terribly.Acne is hereditary also and sometimes you have no choice where your next ZIT is coming from!!!

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My daughter is experiencing stomach problems 3 yrs after taking Accutane. What information do you have if you don't mind sharing?

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@chefpatty your absolutely right Accutane is hereditary.. Jim's just going to tell you what a bad mom you are and how he drank wine as a kid and that less Europeans have acne because they grow up drinking wine. He reminds me of Barber!! One day when I was getting a hair cut.. My barber told me why I had acne.. He said " because you gots to much sugar in your blood mon!!" I didn't take his opinion to serious back then and I was only 16.. I grew up only drinking water.. My sister n I weren't aloud to drink pop.. I would have the occasional juice.. Always ate healthy!! Never been over weight and always stayed active.. I understand that you tried to help your daughter.. Some doctors should better inform Patients how real the side affects are, how long they last and last how likely they are. I remember my doctor telling me the worst that could happen is I have some dry lips and skin. What a joke that was!! The companies that sell these drugs could at least make a 10 min video or something.. Well hopefully people keep suing them until they do. Best of luck for your daughter. I know it's harder for a girl because they weir makeup but try telling her to use just water when washing her face ( I find luke warm is the best). Face soap can dry out the skin causing it to produce even more sebrum/ oil that can In combination with other factors lead to acne break outs.

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Anyone get a super itch? Mostly on the arms and legs. I would get them all the time on accutane but it hasn’t happened in 8 years. And 3 months ago I got a bad one out of the blue and went to my GP. I also asked about a pain in my stomach and he sent me for tests. Turns out I had just developed crones. I get blurred vision the same week, What are the chances? My hair is still in but when i was 16 I lost a bunch of it. I typed in all my rare symptoms and landed here.

So I wanted to look sexy for others(Why we all do it) And now there was no point as my gut hurts so much I couldn’t have sex if i wanted to. I Messed up big, Do not make the same mistake I have.

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Dont do it! I took it for a 6 month period when I was 16. I now am in constant pain, back aches, head aches, stomach problems, bloody stool, horrible joint pain, sore wrists, and Im only 26!

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The Doctors have acutally promoted Accutane for the use in Acne Congblata and when they first aired they mentioned it as only causing dry skin and the pregnancy risks! I know Montel did a show on it back in the late 90's early 2000's! Oprah wouldn't touch it and not sure on Dr. Oz

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Saint - How are you feeling now? Usually that med is given to thoose with Hepatic encephalopathy or thoose traveling who get some type of bacterial diarrhea!

Many diseases are associated with SIBO, Such as Celiac, Diabetes, Chron's, Diverticulli (sp), IBS, etc.. Have you been tested for any of thoose?

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@ oli girl

I have since returned to school, not because of a major improvement in my health (although there has been some) but because I can't graduate if I miss any more school. I've had 2 endoscopy's along with blood tests to cover all of those conditions that you have listed. Everything came back negative and so far they haven't been able to actually prove I have anything. All tests come back normal so it makes it that much harder to figure out.

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you are do NOT take it. I am a scientist It also causes certain types of cancer.

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hi there,
I am just randomly looking up side effects of accutane which my son took at 16 years old. It worked great.He is 24 now and has male pattern baldness, it does run in the family but not until their 30's, I'm wondering if this is the side effect for him. ,

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Don't take Accutane.

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Hello Everybody,

It's been a while since I've been here. I'm feeling so good, but I don't want to forget everybody here suffering. I'm on a regimen that heals me every day. I have a natural doctor that has been working with me. He gave me the tools, but I had to learn how to use them. I really wish I had the funds to bring some of the sick people on here to meet with my doctor or even live with me to get them on the right track. What you need to do is get the tools and the regimen. Once you have this you can proceed to get better. I'm hoping one day I will have the funds to help everybody, because I feel the best way to help people is to get them on the regimen. The only thing I will tell everyone right now is to eat meat and veggies(mostly veggies.) Absolutely no sugar, gluten, milk, wheat. The diet is just one part of the treatment. Right now you are probably discouraged and think I'm full of it. I felt this desperation. I do want everyone to know that I'm still sick, but everyday I get better. You have to know how to work the inflamatory response down. If anyone has questions, I'll give my best answer. I've been on every diet known to man so I'll do my best to help. The only thing I can say is go to a natural doctor immediatly and believe in their treatments. Make sure they are establish and not a new doctor. Anyways, take care everyone.

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Here is my story about Accutane and from reading so many posts, I don't really think anyone has had the same side effect that I have had.
I took Accutane in my early 20's after suffering with acne from about the age of 10. My acne was horrible and I wanted it gone and all of the treatments that had been tried had not worked. What makes me sad is that at the time that I took this HORRID DRUG my acne had gotten better.
The first thing that happened to me about 4 weeks into treatment was that I felt something in my right eye. It was an odd feeling to say the least. I went on taking Accutane for 8 weeks and my eye problem continued to get worse so I stopped. The best way that I can describe it is that it felt like someone was taking a feather and going over my eye constantly. My mom and I started to think about what I was drinking and eating and she out of the blue one day said, "Take ALL of the Vitamin A out of your diet and let's see what happens." Practically everything has either Vitamin A added to it or is naturally in it. My diet consisted pretty much of meat and rice. And amazingly enough, the feeling went away. We deduced that I had gotten toxic doses of Vitamin A from the Accutane and that I had to stay away from just about every food out there.
Then came the IBS. I was sick for months not knowing what this was. I finally saw a gastroenterologist and he confirmed that what I had was IBS however, back then we had no idea that Accutane also had this side effect. I suffered for months and months turned into years. Finally, I got help in the form of a pill and things were okay for awhile............
When I was 30 and woke up one day not being able to move and 3 months later was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia life was horrible and is something now that my doctor thinks was caused by Accutane.
As for my diet and what I could eat that eased up but it took YEARS and I went from the age of 23 to 35 without eating a carrot. I still cannot today have anything with caffeine in it or anything that will stimulate my nerves. My sugar intake is very low and I still can't drink regular milk and never will be able to; I have to drink whole milk with no added Vitamin A.
I have a lot of arthritis in my body as well and do have spondylitis in my back and various other issues.
I once tired a detox and my body went into a mode where I couldn't feel anything on the right side of my body. The detox left the Vitamin A loose in my system and it was horrible. I was in the ER and diagnosed with a parasthia.
I am 48 today and live with the consequences of taking this drug every day.
For those of you that are considering this drug, please don't. What REALLY cleared up my Acne was going to see an esthetician every week for about 6 months. She started using the earlier products of things like ProActiv and my skin was finally clear thanks to her. I STILL use something similar to ProActiv and my skin is TOTALLY clear. My scars are fading as I get older but I consider them battle scars now.
So please try other methods before resulting in one that will alter your life forever.

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Your story sounds a lot like mine Renae and at the same ages too. Just curious, what was your dosage?

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Renae - Thank You for sharing your story! No you are not alone. There are many of us out there with similar stories. You mentioned you took a pill for the IBS what was that? Just curious!

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Hi, I'm 42 years old now and I took Accutane 2 periods of 3 months. The first period at 15 years old and the other at 20 years old. It was severe acne. My dad too had severe acne but Accutane was not available at that time. My kids also started to have acne but guess what... they will not take Accutane like me. So I decided to search on the web for some alternatives. I bought the book "L'alimentation ou la troisième médecine" by doctor Jean Seignalet. It's in french. I recommend this book to anyone how wants a better health. There is a section in his book about acne. essentially what we eat cause the acne. The first food to avoid is dairy products. As my kids, my dad and me were drinking a lot of milk (4 to 6 glass of milk per day), I decided to test the theory with my kids. They take milk only with cereals. So they replaced glass of milk by glass of water. Since then no acne for boths of them. If I knew that when I was a teenager, I would have done that too for sure. SO BEFORE USING ACCUTANE FOR SEVERE ACNE, TRY TO CUT DAIRY PRODUCTS FOR 2 MONTHS. That's my precious advice that worked for my 2 kids. Here is another link: thelovevitamin.com/2810/dairy-acne.
Hoping this will help a lot of teenagers!

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I have been on accutane 3 times, over a course of 6 years, all very high doses and apart from the dry skin that is to be expected, I have had no other medical issues. The main problem for me is that it may not necessarily be the "wonder cure" that many believe it to be.

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I think a class action suite about this drug either has been or is already ongoing. My son took it too, he is now 43, but his last 2 yrs of h/s were a nightmare! He had seizures! They came on after being on this drug, and thank God ..he stopped having them after he through school. But they are still prescribing this drug for acne!! How do they continue to wreck lives? $$$$$$has to be the bottom line! I extend my prayers for your son!

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