Accutane Long Term Side Effects (Page 94)
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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 After I have researched this drug extensively, I can't believe that the FDA allows this drug originally made for cancer patients to be marketed for teenagers with acne.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 have just completed a 6 month course of Roaccutane for Rosacea. My face is fantastic and the side effects whilst taking it weren't too bad. The aching feet, joints and dry eyes and lips were the worst. Now I have been off it since the end of January and I have been experiencing dizziness, shakeness inside, anxiousness and nervousness for no reason. My blood pressure has been very high even though I am on Blood pressure tablets and I have had an irregular heart rate and high pulse rate. My Dr has just sent me for multiple blood tests as Roaccutane can up the levels of clorestoral, triglyclicrides etc. Scary but will know more after results due back this week.

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Thanks Scott, I will visit that their website. Also, thanks for everyone who has added their prayers. It means so much to me. I didn't realize this drug has been affecting so many lives until now. I should have followed my gut at the beginning of my son's illness and looked further into it, but I was told I could never prove it. Do not let anyone you know take Accutane. I know it has only been a month since my son's passing, but I am of course struggling that I agreed to give my son a deadly medication not knowing all of the side affects at the time and that he would be alive today if I had known more.

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I have read all 68 stories previously posted and I have to admit, I'm scared to even see this dangerous pill.
I am a 15 year old who has been suffering from mild acne for several years now and seeing as other oral solutions, as well as numerous face washes and masks have not worked at all, I met with my dermatologist today. We discussed the possibility of going on Accutane and I have to admit, I immediately fell in love with the idea of myself with celebrity-clear skin. But, fortunately, after doing some research and reading these stories, I have been inspired to decline my dermatologist's recommendation. As wondrous as the idea of clear skin may be to someone, it's not worth a lifetime of discomfort and depression. In response to Scared 16 Year Old, I think I'm going to try your dietary recommendations. And in response to everyone else who has mentioned that Accutane is a Vitamin A overdose, they're right. But one thing those people may be overlooking is that the answer is right in front of you. Vitamin A supplements. Go to your local drug store or Walmart and pick up a bottle of Vitamin A. Take two a day, continuously for several months and see if maybe it doesn't help at least a little bit. My mother used to take up to six Vitamin A supplements a day when she was younger and said that she broke out in hives and cysts, but that as soon as she realized that it was the Vitamin A causing her problems, she got off of it and suffered no long term side effects, except for clear skin. Something to think about I suppose.
As a closing statement- let me just say that my heart goes out to everyone who has been affected by Accutane. I hope that someone will put a stop to this madness soon enough to save countless young lives.

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scared 16 yr old- I am soo glad to hear you stoped. I wish you continued sucess. I am no expert on red marks, but try a little joba oil or olive oil on them, maybe even add a little in your moisturizer. Eventually try laser therapy for scars....
Melissa, 1st my heart goes out to you and your family, know you are in our prayers. I posted the link of Roche's info for you and on page 46 it does state anemia, It is vauge could mean many things. Also page 8 talks about thier cardiovascular risks. Scott is right please read Ncc info. I wish you and your family good luck and hope you get justice.
Keep warning and spreading the word everyone, I pray one day all forms of Accutane will be taken off the market.
http:/­/­www.gene.com/­gene/­products/­information/­accutane/­pdf/­pi.pdf
Mark-they prescribe it out of one profit and two they are in denial and pharm reps don't exactly educate let alone be honest about accutane. Thanks

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Mellisa,
You mentioned you may be interested in speaking with a law firm. I spoke with Sharon Dunn at www.carrcarr.com today. I was pleased with the amount of time and concern she had. If you would like, go to their site and a window will appear a few moments after you are on there. Someone will ask you how they can help. Ask for Sharon Dunn. I can't guarantee anything, but it's a great place to start. Good Luck.

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Thanks Scott...I feel that people should hear my comments and the comments of others. One more thing that I considered about Accutane...Why would any Doctor feel comfortable prescribing this drug to a teenager who is still growing and developing when they won't prescribe it to a pregnant woman? If it causes fetus abnormalities don't they think that it is too dangerous to prescribe to someone who isn't finished their adolescent growth cycle?

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Mark, Thank You for leaving valuable information on here. It's a must read.

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Melissa,
Yes, I would contact this lawyer you speak of. Hopefully he can help. If you would like, Email me at my email address and I can give you a list of lawyers I have found over the past 4-5 years. Please be patient if one doesn't fit your needs. Maybe the letter you received is God sent or it may lead you to someone that can help.

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Thanks Scott for everything. I feel like it's my fault for allowing my son to go on this drug and if he didn't he would be here today. I know it has only been a month since his death and I am still having a really hard time. But what is really weird is that last week I got a Legal Advertisement in the mail regarding Accutane and that they are gathering information to see if there is enough for a class-action case. They are only talking about ibs, colitis, and chroin's disease. After being told by the doctors that I would never be able to prove that Accutane is what caused my sons immune system to attack itself and give up trying to prove it, I get this letter in the mail three weeks after his death. Is my son trying to tell me something or is it just coincidence? And where do I start? Do I trust this law firm? Thanks again for your response and thoughtfulness.

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Melissa,
I am very sorry for your loss. You have brought me to tears. May God be with you in these trying times. Please read the report below posted by Ncc . He goes in great detail on known facts Accutane has caused. From the Heart, Scott

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Scared 16 year old at home,
I am glad to hear you are doing well again! The redness and scars are nothing compared to what might have been. Keep looking, I am sure you will find a different alliterative than Accutane to help you out with the redness etc. May God Bless.

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Thank you for your help everyone. I quit the accutane at a little over two months.

I am no longer depressed and I no longer have mood swings. I can also run and train again without lower back and joint pain (I am a high school wrestler).

The only problem that I am having is the scars and red marks that accutane left me with. I might go in for laser scar removal. If anyone knows a way to get rid of scars please let me know.

What really surprised me was how much food effects our skin. I used to eat extremely well for a 16 year old (no soda no sweets etc). But what I figured out is that I wasn't eating enough vegetables and didn't get the right dairy products.

I switched my milk to raw grass fed milk from Whole Foods and make a big fruit smoothie every morning and I eat a bunch of vegetables for lunch and throughout the day. Instead of meat I now have a protein shakes as well. Along with drinking almost a gallon of water a day.

You would be surprised on how much this has helped my skin. I no longer have ANY acne on my back and haven't had anymore whiteheads on my face (just the left over small cysts that will go away in time). The red marks seem to be fading as well, just not as fast as I would like them to.

All of this has happened and I have only been off the accutane for about a month!

Thank you everyone on this board you may have saved me from facing wayyyy worse problems and to anyone on this crap please go off of it and change up the food you eat.

Thanks again and if you know of anything that will help these scars/ red marks away faster please let me know.

-Rob

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16 year old on claravis,

I highly recommend you stop taking Accutane. I was never informed of the dangers like you are being informed now, however I had 1-2 friends that took it and were fine so I figured I would be fine as well. This was not the case. Although I have an older friend who took the drug in the 80's and has chronic health issues ever since.
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There are many different treatments for acne, especially cutting out all bad food, plus this will give you more benefits and you will notice your overall health improving. Definetley don't count on your dermatoligist to be honest, they make a profit everytime you see him/her for the bloodwork each month.

Wait until you have more information on Accutane and brain scans, immune system and so on, and you will see that it was worth stopping. Stopping treatment right away when physical/psychiatric side effects occur, and especially being aware of your body, the long term risks are much less.

Good Luck

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My son took Accutane when he was 16 years old for about 4 to 6 months in the spring & summer. That December he was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder called Aplastic Anemia. This disorder is when your own immune system attacks itself and your bone marrow does not make enough white, red and platelets to support your body. It is treated just like leukemia. They only find out 10% of the time what causes it. In his case it was never proven, but I always thought Accutane had something to do with it. My son went in for chemo, radiation, and a bone marrow transplant two days after his 18th birthday. The transplant took, but his kidneys shut down, his liver became and issue, numberous blood clots, seizures, all things that normally do not happen after a bone marrow transplant. This New Year's Day, my son died of a massive coronary heart attack. The autospy showed that his heart looked like that of a 60 year old, had hardening of the arteries and 90% blockage of the blood vessels. He was a healthy teenager until he took this drug and now he has left us. Any help out there on Aplastic Anemia and Acutane would be greatly appreciated.

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Scared 16 year old on Clarivis,
Have you told your mom and dad about this site and many others talking about the possible long term side effects of this drug ? Have your parents read the tread below where someone has been kind enough to share a detailed report on what Vitamin A over dose can do to a person. This drug is just that, over dose of Vitamin A. Have your parents read this report asap, and maybe you can make a good judgment on what to do next.

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I took accutane as an adult in my 30's. I had horrible acne since puberty on my back and although it was not on my face all too frequently, it would appear from time to time as a huge bump. I also had strange white spots around my shoulders. Since my father had excellent medical insurance, they had given me Prednisone which I discovered later was probably causing the white spots on my back and shoulders as well as on a couple of my teeth. As an adult I discovered that Doctors won free trips and cars by prescribing medication presumably my fathers great medical insurance was a cash cow for the dermatologist. Despite administration of this medication, it really did not work long term although it did have some positive effects temporarily...only enough to keep the cash cow going. Its a crime what they do to teenagers. Having taken the wonder drug accutane as an adult after battling acne for years - huge eruptions on my back mostly - I was game. It did cure my acne and the side effects - I haven't had any, HOWEVER, I could be sterile. Yes, have your teenage sons checked for sterility as that is one of the side effects. Some years after my accutane regime, a close friend's teenage nephew and son were starting to get acne. She took her son off non-organic Milk and the acne was greatly reduced and eventually eliminated. Won't that be easy...if the stuff they pass off as Milk in this country caused acne? Ingesting Low Fat 2% Milk / Non Fat Milk is probably the reason for many health problems...so before putting your teenagers on accutane, try removing processed Milk and milk products from the diet. Only use Organic Whole Milk - forget about low fat, non fat products - fat doesn't make you fat and the lack of good fats in the diet malnurishes the brain and probably adversely changes the body chemistry. I have heard that it takes about 2 weeks to clear up the acne. If that doesn't work you can always try ProActive which seems to work, however, if its only the diet and no one on this blog has mentioned changing their diet, then its certainly worth trying before taking drugs that could have dangerous long term side effects. Homogenized processed Milk wasn't meant to be ingested or even healthy...same goes for cheeses and other processed milk products.
If you like cheese, try eating whole milk organic cheese from cows that are grass fed and don't over do it. Never buy reduced or fat-removed products - fats are essential to our health and all these buzz-word marketing of products is destroying the healthy of society.

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I would stop. There are other options. At your age, you are dealing with enough hormonally and emotionally without adding in mood swings and even possible depression due to the Clarvaris too. I had horrible acne as a teen and that is why I sought help for my 16 year old. Looking back, I survived acne, my 16 year old will survive acne and so can you. Its just acne! I dont think Clarvaris should be dispensed to teens with everything that you are going through.

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Ronnie-It is know that many accutane users carry more staphylcoccus/streptococcus. Have you had someone look at theese bumps or cultural them. As for fragile skin, flushing...yes many have experinced this after accutane.
To worried 16yr Old- I don't know if anyone will really have an answer for you. My suggestion would be to stop. No one can ensure that the side effects you are experincing will be permanent or not, some if not most joint,bone and muscle problems take a while to surface.
Personally I would try light therapy, it works just as good and no side effects.

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Hello everyone,

I am 16 years old almost 17 and I have been taking 60mg (3 20mg pills) of isotretinoin a day for 2 and a half months.

So far I have had bad lower back pains, I have severe mood swings and dry skin and lips.

After reading everything you guys have to say I am extremely scarred and want to quit the drug. The only problem is it just started to work so well and I just don't know what to do!

I have multiple friends that went on the same drug with no problems and they have awesome skin!

My Derm tells me everything is ok but is it really?

HELP!!!

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I am sorry to hear and read of all these terrible stories and concerns from taking Accutane. I took Accutane for five months when I was twenty years old.While taking Accutane I had all the side effects I was warned about. You know, the major acne out breaks, dry lips, pale skin, crusty skin.I am now twenty nine years old and my skin has been clear and clean for nine years now.I am very happy with the end results of my skin. I had a very bad acne problem starting from back when I was twelve.so this was a major relief for me. However, I do experince strange side effects I have always believed to be linked by my use of Accutane . I get red very easliy! Just by having my back rubbed or scracthed my skin turns very bright red and stays red for about thirty to fourty five minutes.Somtimes when I get stressed a certain spots on the back of my neck turn red.I am a fair skinned male so it really stands out. I have been asked by my girlfriend if I am ok, because it looks painfull to her after she rubs or scratches my back. I have no pain, but I do become flushed very easy, I can just scratch my skin ( mostly back and neck) and turns red very easily and stays sustained for quite somtime.one other side effect I noticed, is that I have these little pockets' on my skin. They tend come and go, but they store puss like acne and when squeezed they drain. I have some pockets that look like scars that I have had for years. I have one on my neck, chest and back. Sometimes nothing comes out when squeezed other times they ( if not being bothered for a awhile seem to fill up) and drain like a blackhead. Except it is a very stiff smelly type of puss. Sorry if I am grossing you guys out I just wanted to share my story with you.I use to be in serious pain with my acne. I truely believe Accutane has fixed my appearance and taken away the pain that I use to suffer from my accute ance problem.My question to all of you is, does anyone else have these type of side effects?

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