I did a full course of this for my cystic acne when I was 26. While the chapped lips and dried out nasal cavities were annoying, it cured my cystic acne and was completely worth it. My self esteem went up tremendously, and I believe it saved me from terrible feelings of inferiority. Although the cystic acne never came back (THANK GOD!) my skin did eventually return to it's oily state and at 35, I now have a problem with milder but persistent acne on my chest and midriff. It took a long time for this to happen though, and I do not regret doing the initial course of treatment. I went back to trying minocycline, etc. but nothing else had any effect. Now I am back on Accutane at a lower dose (40mg) but I may end up doing the full maximum treatment again just to get it over with. Whatever it takes, it will be a relief not to have to wear turtleneck sweaters 365 days a year to hide the awful mess that is my chest and neck. Although I have gotten a few headaches (solved with ibuprofen), probably the worst side effect is the new ipledge program which causes you to jump through hoops to acquire the meds. That alone is more depressing than any depression-type side effect I ever got from Accutane. Anyway, I've been singing Accutane's praises for years and expect to continue doing so. Nothing cures acne, but this drug is very effective at supressing it for a very long period of time. I am grateful to have insurance that covers the drugs and blood work, but realize this is not an option for everyone.

Works great, side effects can be terrible!!!I'm 22. I took accutane over a year ago. I was supposed to take it for 4 months but i only too it for 1 2/3 months, but it did clear up my achne in this time. I had to discontinue use because I got severe depression, my immune system dropped and I kept gettin sick, I was tired all the time, I lost my appetite but still gained some weight, I got dark circles under my eyes, i quite talking to all my friends, and the last two weeks before i quit I had crying spells all through the day. Finally I quite becasue I got so sick. Once I was off of the accutane the depression did not go away for over 6 months. I think my personality was chaged for ever. these side affects are not the same for everyone, I have a friend who went on accutane also and she did not experience anything but a few moodswings and dry lips. But I know another boy (16yrs) who did accutane and also had severe side affects, and yet another boy (18yrs) who went on prozac 6 months after accutane treatment.

I've used accutane 5 months, finished on july 6th, its now september 18th and my body is still incredibly sore and I can't do much and play sports really without getting very sore very easily. I called up the pharm lab (I took amnesteem so Icalled up their pharm lab), and the woman in the lab told me side effects may never go away, and if they do theres no set time frame, they could take very long or else be permanent.

And I dont have any pimples, I've only been off it 2 and a half months, not enough time for them to come back, but I have nasty red spots left from the tane, and my face still doesn't look good.

I'd never take tane again, and if my doctor didn't brush off every side effect and told me its possible for some side effects to be permanent, instead of telling me they all go away, then I would of never taken it the 1st time.

I feel even worse after taking accutane.

I have used Accutane twice. Both times I had very good results and my skin stayed cleared for a couple of years after stopping treatment. However, Accutane has horrible side effects. It has been linked to severe depression and psychotic behavior. I did experience depression along with a host of other problems....very dry lips, and eyes, loss of hair (it came back), cholestrol went way up, muscle cramps, and severe stomach problems. Before you take the medication, please read everything you can about it, so that you can make an informed decision. I know how hard it is when you have severe acne....you will try anything. I am the same way, but we don't want to harm the rest of our bodyies and minds and in the process.

I used Accutane many years ago for severe cystic acne that I had when I was in my early 20's. The cysts were so big that some of them hurt. I felt so awful about how I looked that I avoided mirrors and sometimes even social situations. I tried absolutely everything else, but nothing worked liked Accutane. Initially from the Accutane I experienced very dry, peeling skin and lips, but a gentle moisturizer and lip balm helped. Eventually those side effects left. It took a few months for the Accutane to work, but it eventually cleared my skin. Plus the results have lasted years. While I may occasionaly get a single pimple or small acne cyst, I have been able to treat these with over the counter topical preparations. The best part is, I have never suffered from the severe form of cystic acne again.

I had severe acne problems and I tried most of the products on the market, I actually went to every dermatologist in the Bahamas and finally, my last resort was the one dermatologist I did not go to and he put me on roaccutane for six months and my husband, family and friends saw a drastic change in my skin, it became smoother and clearer and I was getting compliments from everyone who saw my skin.

After I came off the roaccutane, my skin was doing well for about a year and then I started to break out again, so my dermatologist put me on 20mg per day for about three months and my skin got better. My husband and I wanted to have a second child, so I decided to go off of the drug because you can not get pregnant if you are taking it becaue of the side effects. I noticed that my skin was ok for awhile, but when the summer came, it started to break out again, but to be honest it was not as bad as it would have been if I was not on the treatment previously. I did get the nose bleeds, which I only noticed when I cleaned my nose, so I had to use vaseline in my nose because it would get very dry and "crust up". I also has dryness in my groin area and have to use medication which was expensive and dry lips (very very dry). I would sometimes get slight headaches but they would subside.

My doctor recently put me on predisone for 1 week and it helped, but it is a short term treatment and now I am just using a topical cream and a cream to get the marks out. I do understand what it feels like when you are sick to look at your self in the mirror, but my acne really got bad after I had my daughter who will be six years old next month and has perfect skin that does not even leave marks. (Oh how great it would be to have perfect skin and not have to worry about acne!!!!!

I'm 28 and have been taking Accutane for almost 1 week now to treat acne on my face, chest, back and shoulders. Most of the problems I have is clogged pores all over, occassional large acne spots on face or chest, and my back is pretty bad. I'm really hoping that this works because other treatments such as Minocycline, tetracycline, Differin and Retin-A all only help slightly and do not achieve the results I hoped for.

So far, my skin has started getting very noticably dry and itchy. I've been using moisturizer 2x a day on my face and adding a little more when needed, and the Aquaphor healing ointment for lips a few times a day. My derm gave me a ton of samples of both the Aveeno redness reducing moisturizer and the J&J Purpose redness reducing moisturizer. Both have an SPF. I'm still experimenting with both. I've already noticed skin fluffing off my face specially in the mornings.

The other side-effect that bugs me the most is the drying of my eyes. I typically wear contacts but got to the point even after 3 or 4 days that I was unable to wear contacts due to dry/irritated eyes. Glasses for me for a while. My derm recommended I use a renew night moisturizing gel (which feels very strange btw) to help add moisture.

I'll post back in a few months with an update... If anyone would like to contact me about this, please feel free to email me at [email address removed]. I'll be happy to share my experiences, trade tips on skin care, etc.

Iv taken accutane in my previous years, but I thought it was ok to not take it for a day or two so I could drink a little, and it did clear up my face at the time, although my acne did come back, so im going to take it again but this time im going to take it seriously and not drink, overall it works well, but your lips get extremely dry, and I had numerous nose bleeds from just rubbing the outside of my nose which sucks, but I hate acne

I'm 26 male, had severe acne since age 15. Tried over the counter and precription creams and gels but nothing worked until I got acutane from my dermatolgist. His name Dr Paul Cohen here in Toronto Canada ([link removed]), he's great. It didn't cost me a thing because I have medical insurance through work. I did two cycles, I believe over 6 months or so. Only had the dry lips, my skin tends to be very oily so when my skin went dry from the acutane I was very happy. Had no other side effects. I was extremely happy with the results after I finished my cycle, my skin had improved so much. I have before and after pictures I may post later. I do still break out once in a while but definitely not as much as before. Now I'm using prescription retin A from th same doc to improve the look and texture of my skin and that too is working wonders. All the red and brown spots left after the acne have cleared up.

Also had two microdermabrasions, I am noticing a slight improvement with that too, but it does not, I repeat does NOT get rid of icepick marks, I have a lot of those, but it does improve the look and texture of the skin around it and everywhere else on the face.

Acutane definitely saved my self esteem and my social life. I'm a thousand times more confident now, and I'm very happy :o). I definitely recommend Acutane.

I just started sotret/accutane 2 weeks ago i used to have severe cystic acne and ive tryed retin a minocycline and all basically alot of creams and antibiotic they helped but definitley didnt clear me up so im on accutane and so far it seems to be ok but ive read and heard that you wont see full results until the treatment is at least 3 months over not evem full results just alot better then before im really looking forward to clear skin it worked great for my mom and she hasnt had to deal with really any more acne in 20 years so im just gettin through a breakout now but it wasnt all that bad the dryness of the lips sucks but VASELINE is great for that ive noticed some mscle cramping and alot of dryness on the face so far those are the symptoms. Any encoragement would help tons.thanks