Accutane Long Term Side Effects (Page 92)
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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 After I have researched this drug extensively, I can't believe that the FDA allows this drug originally made for cancer patients to be marketed for teenagers with acne.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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Nervous 15 year old,

You may want to show your mom and dad these post. I had no idea of all the possible side effects from these drugs when I listened to the doctor tell my son it was time he was on Accutane. Educating yourself over any medications you take is always a godd idea. Show your parents these post and ask your doctor any questions you may have while prescribed this drug. If your parents would like to ask me any questions . Please tell them to email me. I check my email about once a day. Your problems taking the first pill may just have been indigestion. I believe you should take food and drink some water when taking some medications Good Luck !

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I've been on accutane for one day I took my first pill today 40mg 1 pill a day. After taking it, it felt like it didn't go down properly and I had a severe stomach pain for a good hour. I'm reading all these post and I dont know what to do. My parents would be mad if I told them I wanna get off it if they just paid 125$ for it! What should I do! Help me please.

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I am so surprised of all this about accutane. My husband now 44 took it in his early 20's and has really no side affects, well maybe some indigestion which we all get. I have a best friend that took it and has no problems, too. I have more bowel/stomach problems and body aches from curved spine & neck and bulging disc and I was never on it. But we were considering accutane for her when she makes 12. She is now 11 and been battling with acne since 8. She is now trying Epiduo topical and Cetaphil soap. So I guess it does not affect everyone that has taken it? It makes me really think to not put my daughter on it. I wish you all well.

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Dear Anna,
Thanks for your recent reply on a post I started last summer. As a father of a son that has similar health issues, I can relate to your post from the bottom of my heart. You are now in my daily thoughts and prayers.

Unfortunately, I understand what you are saying when talking about how the doctors of our time simply can't explain or don't want to explain what these drugs have done to some people months and even many years after taking them. Please check back to this site when you can, although we seem to not be able to get the medical treatment and answers we deserve from our medical doctors, we all must believe that soon, all of our questions about the Causation of Accutane and its generic brands will be answered. And these drugs will be pulled from the market forever.

I have taken by son to many so called specialist that claim to be the best in the world including the Cleveland Clinic, and still I search for a doctor that puts his integrity of helping patients above the down sides of admitting these drugs if anything, should have been taken for chemotherapy for cancer and nothing else PERIOD. I don't believe I have mentioned this on any of my post, recently I called John Hopkins Hospital in Maryland in regards to my sons health concerns and although they could make no promises on placing any medical problems on any past medications, they have a doctor that does not except insurance money to see him. You pay around $500 for the initial visit and if any test are needed there after, medical insurance can be used. From my past experiences with our so called specialist of our time, some of them are non-profit operations which just happen to except a money from anybody to stay afloat. This seems to be were Pharmaceutical Companies have and keep a upper hand on pushing new drugs and keeping many drugs flowing through many patients to create more of a profit to make them some of the most wealthiest corporate companies in the world.

I now believe that one must find a specialist in the causation of Accutane that is not connected in anyway to Insurance and Pharmaceutical Companies to find the truth not on only how these drugs have effected some of us but most of all to find out what medical test, drugs and vitamins etc what can help us continue living the best life we can.

Anna, I am not qualified to give any medical advise, but please try to connect to your friends you mention in your post. I would bet they are waiting to hear from you and care very much about you. E-mail me anytime if you would like to talk. There are also other people on this page that I am sure would share there personal stories taking this medication and how they are coping to get by. I would be more than happy to pass your name on to them.

Best Wishes,
From the Heart,
Scott

If there is a medical doctor out there reading this please don’t hesitate to contact us. We are all waiting to from YOU !

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I took 2 rounds of accutane when I was around 21 years old. I had the chapped lips etc but really thought it was no big deal, as a few negative short term side effects were the price you had to pay to get clear skin for the rest of your life. I had always been an honor student, in high school and college. I was athletic as well, playing basketball, volleyball, track, competetive swimming. I loved life and had tons of friends, loved going to parties etc. I did have some aching in my legs, dry face, sensitive eyes, bouts of diarrhea, but ignored it. Looking back, I started withdrawing from others, more and more. I felt flat. I was bone tired and wanted to sleep.

I am now 46. My bones hurt all the time. One disk in my hip is totally dessicated. Three other disks have spurring and arthritis. My vitamin D levels are so low I have to take 4000 units a day. My skin is so dry, so itchy, as well as my eyes, and sinuses. I have headaches all the time, so I had a MRI of the brain. There is some sort of strange diffuse damage on both sides, but no one knows what. My hair is so thin and scraggly, my scalp is always itchy.
I'm now told I have low thyroid. My stomach is always feeling sick. I take all kinds of medicines - for thyroid, anti-depressants for the pain, narcotics for the pain. Even with all that, I still hurt all the time. No one knows why. I don't feel too great, obviously, so I've pretty much lost all my friends. Not feeling well and being so tired, I also am more easily angered. I lost my job and have not worked in 2 years. All I want to do is sleep.
I can't say for sure whether all of this is from taking accutane, but I would be surprised if there was no connection. Why would I have a dessicated disk in my hip otherwise? Everybody says I have changed. By the way, I still get pimples! For me, the best way to get clear skin is to take vitamins, such as zinc, selenium, all the B vitamins, vitamin C, a multivitamin without iodine, lay off the milk, mayo, carbs and sugar. I use proactive sometimes, but now I'm really loving the olay oil free products. I use retin-a every few days, a topical appication of milk of magnesia at times, a sulfur based mask.
My bones and joints hurt so much, particularly my neck, which causes nonstop headaches.
I have never posted any comment on the internet. After reading the stories here, I just felt I had to. Again, I don't know if accutane played a role in my demise. My heart tells me that it did.
I am begging all of you not to take it. Please try going to an endocrinologist first - see if your homone levels need adjusting. Please try changing your diet first.
I will pray for you all.
Please pray for me too. Please pray that all who suffer will be given relief. God bless you all

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My sister was on accutane for a while and had a lot of the dryness and red skin that I guess is typical. I was about to be put on it as well, but my doctor wasn't too keen on it and he put me on tetracycline instead, which seemed to help. My sister though has had a lot of stomach type issues since being on it and it's interesting to read others comments about gastrointestinal problems. I also did a search and came across some info on this legal site (http://bit.ly/9gQyPx) -- it sounds like maybe someone's getting a lawsuit going. I'm not sure how you prove it, but there's just too much that seems coincidental with everyone's stomach or intestinal problems. I told my sister to stop taking it. Has anyone else out there heard any more about a lawsuit? thanks.

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Lisa,
I have taken my son to three arthritis and auto-immunity doctors. The ones I have seen have been non profit centers that receive most of their funds from pharmaceutical companies. To this point, these doctors have denied any wrong doings from the drug Accutane and it’s generic brands but one of these doctors did order a full body bone scan and a colonoscopy for my son which was very helpful. If you haven’t already, I would suggest seeing a Arthritic and Auto-Immunity Specialist. Also if you are having any stomach problems, I would suggest seeing a Gastroenterologist. I truly share your concerns.

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please everyone, this is not worth it..it is only a matter of time before the fda yanks this....i will have days where i can function but 40% of the the time i cannot...but could before accuatnce. the frustrating thing is that there is no way to rpove it...i think i need to go to an aoutimmune dr...my family dr hAS BEEN GREAT...LOOKING BACK NOW I REALIZE THAT i should have just drank wayyyyy more water and eliminated wheat/gluten (just eat corn & rice) and no dairy or eggs...the human body was never meant to consume these...get some sun...aka vitamin d and i knownyour skin will clear...also my teenage girls have really benefitted from taking the pill for thei skin since it is all about hormones. so...what have all ofn you found out from autoimmune docs? good luck and try the natural path..WATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! alos i am always so exhausted now i could sleep 12 hours each night crazy!!!

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not worth the risk!!!!

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Yeah, you know I posted a reply 3/19. I would definitly recommend talking to your doctor if any serious side effects occur. I myself when i took accutane quit after about 5 weeks as did my brother because our bodies were telling us to stop, by then most my acne was cured. I did get one baseball size cyst on my back while finishing the medicine but otherwise everythign was okay. Now, seriously my brother has been to the Mayo Clinic for a joint and bone/mustle pain disorder for years, he told me he had his insurance cover upwords 100k in medical expenses do to this. My brother who took accutane had complained of joint and mustle pain ever since taking accutane so perhaps they are connected even though it has not been proven. 3 years after I took accutane my back gave out unexpectedly when I was 28 and I've had on and off back pain ever since, I can't attribute this to that drug either, but who knows. Really if you take the drug long enough to get rid of the bad part of your acne I think its more worth than being permenantly scared really bad rest of your life. I would never take any medicine that the side effects out weigh the benefits of the drug, but for me it was choice i don't regret because I was a mess acne wise before i took this drug. And yes I'm glad i quit before I finished the full course.

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Dear Eddie,
If I were you, I would make a appointment to see your family doctor asap or even go to the emergency room in the hospital if you aren’t feeling well. Feeling depressed is said to be a side effect from Accutane and its generic brands but depression can be caused by many other things. Please don’t hesitate even to go to the ER right now if you feel the need to. Hospitals have people that go to the ER all the time if they are feeling depressed. There is medication that can help you. In a short period of time, you could feel well again. I don’t have all the answers to all the side effects from Accutane, but I can relate to your stomach pain etc because my son is going through the same thing. You are not alone my friend. If your having stomach problems, a gastroenterologist will be able to run test to see what’s going on. My son had a colonoscopy last August and it was negative to any serious matters, but he still deals with some of the same things you are talking about. My son has Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and it can be treated with medication. You can email me anytime and I will try to get back to you asap just to talk. Sometimes just talking to others that are going through some of the same issues we are having helps us all out a lot. Years ago when you took this medication, we did not have the internet to be able to communicate with others at the drop of a dime and also look up medication side effects. Chances are the doctors would have known a lot less about the drug then and if you Mom would have pursued any side effects you may have had at that time, she would have got nowhere. The important thing going on is what’s happening right now and seeing a medical doctor to tell him about your symptoms so they can help. Hang in there my friend, everything is going to be OK, just go see a doctor for advice and he will be able to help you out. Email me anytime and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Good Luck !
Let us know how you make out...

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ACCUTANE11 hello i am 30 year old male i took accutane when i was 16-17 for about a year and a half !!! since then i have had a really bad bloating feeling and uncomfortable pain in my right side !! but i have never had it checked ! i really felt depression back then now that i think on it im mean severly!! my mom never really followed up on things to much back then!! but i have had my liver and few other things checked since i have taken them !!! i really need help with this i know its been a looong time ago but im really jus thinking back and hearing about all the problems and long term problems of accutane use! someone tell me who i can talk to please !!! or who can i get in touch with about this sincerly eddie r.

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Nick,
Your reply reminds me so much of my son's situation. I can share your pain. Unfortunately sometimes we have to regroup and come up with a different plan. I would suggest seeing a Arthritic and Auto-Immunity Specialist for starters. They can check you for many things like full body bone scans, order blood work to check for lyme diease and other auto immunity dieases. There is a lot of information on on here that may be able to help you out. Good luck !

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I took a generic brand of accutane when I was about 17 years old in high school. during that time i was playing football, working out, lifting weights, etc. When I got to about the third or fourth month of taking the medication I started to get severe side effects. Dry skin, chaped lips, and muscle and joint pain. I stop taking the medication before I finished the 6 month course. The medication ruined my life and the ability to play football in college because, of the ongoing mucsle pain and tendonitis. It has been 3 years now and I still have these side effects. What do I do to get ride of them?

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Hi! I'm no doctor but I did take a university class on genetics so I'm going to explain what causes baldness.

The alleles (genes coding for) baldness is located on the X chromosome.
It is a recessive disorder meaning that both X chromosomes in a female must have the alleles for baldness in order to be bald. If only one copy contains the allele for baldness then the female will not be bald but will have a 50 percent chance of passing that allele to her children. This is because a mother passes one of her X chromosomes to her child. The father can pass either an X or Y chromosome to their child (and hence determine the sex of the child). However, since males have an X and a Y chromosome, you only need one X chromosome with the allele for baldness to be bald. This is why baldness is more common in males that females. Therefore, for males, what determines baldness is the X chromosome passed on by the mother since only the father can pass on the Y chromosome.
This means if you are a male and you mother is bald then you have a 100 percent chance of being bald.
If you are a male and your mother is not bald but your mother's dad way bald, then you have a 50% chance of being bald because her father would have passed on his only X chromosome to your mother.
If you are a female and your dad and mom was bald then you have a 100% chance.
If your dad was bald and your mom's dad was bald but she isn't then you have a 50% chance.

So what im trying to say is if their doesn't apply to you and you are experiencing balding, chances aren't it isnt genetic.

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Jim,

Thank you for leaving a post of your experience taking Accutane. I am glad to hear you had no long term side effects from this drug and hopefully your hair loss and your brothers bone and joint pain years later after taking Accutane isn’t from the drugs at all. You bring up a very interesting point when you had no long term side effects from this medication because you only took them for less than 5 weeks because you developed joint pain. I would bet that if most people were not prescribe this medication at 60 mg at day for 5-6 months there would be less people having trouble with the medication today. Not only is it one of the most dangerous drugs on the FDA list but also our well trained medical doctors are overdosing our children or ourselves everyday on these drugs. We were not all lucky enough just to stop the medication on our own without the doctors knowledge. I am happy for you that it all worked out for you. Personally I wouldn’t be able to tell anyone to take this medication. I would never want anyone to suffer from a medication that has known side effects which among many other medical issues, can cause Crohns or Colitis Disease.

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Hi, i took accutane when i was 25, i'm 37 years old now. Seriously the best decision I've ever made. I remember bleeding all over from sores on my chest back and face. I was prescribed a 4-8 weeks course of accutane, prob the max dosage, i'ver heard others taking for months on end maybe they are on lesser dose version. The medicine will dry your skin out while you take it but will only last while you take the medicine this is normal. But it works and your acne will go away, if you don't the acne can destroy your skin. I have not had all the problems these other people half mentioned, only side affect i really noticed is my hair seemed thing out a little bit after taking the medicine. it may have accelerated normal male pattern baldness for me but that is only a maybe. I don't have joint or mustle pain or anything else and it got rid of 85% of the acnet for a few years, i still get the occasional cyst where i shave or one on my back once in while but for most part it cured my acne problem. If you have severe acne I recommend you take this medicine. I stopped at 5 weeks, i didn't do the full 8 weeks because my joints started to ache and i was really dry skin..so if they give you 8 weeks medicine if you don't have to take it that long, stop it immediately if you feel uncomfortable,...the 5 week worked for me, i didn't even have take it for full period and it worked. This drug could possibly cause these other problems as it is a drug..but reading in the complaint forum you are going to find people with the hard luck stories...you need to hear the stories that happen for most people and that is it cures there acne problem. I mean you wont' get any pimples for at least 2 years after you take this stuff..it works wonders, trust me on this. Once you take it you will say to yourself why did i wait so long. People even go on 2nd and 3rd course of this medicine if they relapse back into an acne problem. It's really a miracle drug. My suggestion again is when you take it if you fee the side affects are getting uncomfortable dont' do the full course of the medicine..even a partial course of the medicine doesn good, did for me. My brother also took this and stopped early when his joints started get sore. My brother does have joint and bone problems though i can't say that it was from accutane, i just know from my own experince besides slight hair thining I have not had any other of these problems other people have mentioned here. I've even considered taken it a little while again get rid of the few cysts I get under my chin from time to time.

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I'm on accutane right now and I am 17 years old and a senior in High School. Everybody (family, friends, teachers, etc) told me not to take accutane because it is 'poison'. I have tried to cure my acne since I was in 7th grade and literally tried every acne treatment (topical and oral). My acne isnt cystic but it comes and goes in large enough quantities to damage my esteem. I also have extreme anxiety and mild depression, both of which I am on medication for. This is another reason why my mom and dermatologist were skeptical with me going on this medication. I have been on accutane for 5 months now. I am experiencing terribly dried lips and dry skin. I have also broken out in a few crying spells but nothing too unusual. I have never had thoughts of suicide and I was warned that taking this medication may make me think of suicide which scared me. I have not considered suicide 5 months later. I have been to the doctor since taking accutane and I am still growing and am a healthy (slightly slender) teenager. Although my acne isn't completely gone yet, I am having a positive accutane experience. Also, keep in mind that there are different amounts of accutane you or your child can take. Since my acne isn't as bad as most who go on accutane, I started on the small dose and increased to a medium dose which is what I am going to take for the rest of my treatment. Perhaps those with major side effects after treatment were those who were perscribed larger doses. I am not saying that accutane is healthy and everyone should take it, but I know that it has already done a number on my self esteem and that with careful monitoring and small doses I think it could do the same for others. My regret from accutane is that I didn't take it earlier. I wish I could have taken it in middle school so I could have had a clear high school, but it's better late than never! For those who have had bad experiences with accutane, I am sincerely sorry ,but I hope that those stories don't scare everyone away from taking it because I know it can positively effect peoples lives.

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Kate,
You are already doing the right tihing by researching this drug before you take it. Has your doctor tried any antibiotics for you like doxcycoline fro ance. My 16 year old son has moderate acne. He quit dring sodas, and now drinks about 6-8 glasses of water a day. Plus he watches what he eats and uses some over the counter medications. If you can go to a GNC store, they will be able to show you some over the counter creams, face mask and vitamins that will also help control breakouts. If you can, talk to someone in your family you are close with and share your concerns with this medication. Please let us know how you make out. Someone is always on this site that will talk to you when ever you need to.
From the Heart -Scott

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Dear concerned and 14. My 16 year old is 5 months out off the Clarvaris. He is still having problems with depression and psychotic behavior due to this drug. The docs say there is less than a 1% chance of anyone have such a severe reaction to this drug. The facts are kids are having problems on this stuff and it scares me to death that doctors are putting teens on this stuff. Yes, it works for most with minimal side effects. You are a teen and are going through a lot of changes in your hormones and life right now, do you really need to mess with that right now? Are you able to recognize that you are depressed? Every drug has its side effects and we take chances every day. You and your parents need to decide if this is right for you and be aware of the side effects. Can you wait a couple years. I had severe acne as a kid, I didnt have many choices for my acne. I have scaring. I turned out just fine as an adult. Unfortunately, I am beginning to think that the psychotic side effects for my son are going to be more permanent for him. Accutane is off the market in the US due to law suits due to the side effects. What you are getting now is imported in from another country.

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