I'm a month into my 80mg/day Accutane (Claravis) course and have noticed that my eyes have become darker/duller. When I look closely, it appears that the sclerae of my eyes (the normally white parts) are dark and almost bluish (NOT yellow, which would be indicative of liver damage). I know it's easy to become a bit paranoid while on Accutane, considering the large number of side effects to which it's been linked, but I'm pretty confident that my eyes have significantly darkened since I've been on Accutane.
I'm sure all of you acne sufferers will believe me when I say that I spend an abnormally large amount of time looking at my face, close-up, in the mirror; because of this, I do not feel as though I am imagining things due to paranoia. I first noticed the change about a week ago (3 wks into my course) and finally decided to start looking into it a couple of days ago. The only link to Accutane I could find was an old post made on some random forum, in which a woman claimed that Accutane had caused ocular discoloration and lesions due to excessive dryness.
From what I read, it seems that scleral darkening, often called "blue sclerae", is caused by the thinning of the sclerae, which allows the dark blue pigment cells of the choroid layer to show through. I asked my derm about it and she said she had never heard of a link between the two and couldn't think of why Accutane would cause scleral thinning, since Accutane targets keratin containing cells. She was going to contact the opthamologist and get back to me.
Anyways, I was just wondering if anyone else has noticed this potential side effect while on Accutane. I included some pics that, hopefully, demonstrate what I'm talking about.
Years late but who cares. I've been on three courses of Accutane and this has happened to me.
The interesting part is, not all of my sclera looks dark, only the parts that are regularly exposed (to the world). The rest of my sclera (upper/lower part) is still very white and very clean. Maybe it has something to do with UV exposure. Read something like that a while ago.
I don't think it's just 'during' the Accutane course. I've been off of my last course for more than a year now and my sclera hasn't whitened. But I do think it will go away with proper treatment. I haven't visited any ophthalmologist about this but I'll update once I get new information.
I think what happens is, Accutane dries the protective layer of the eyes, just like it does to the skin. So the eyes become sensitive - again, just like the skin does. The skin darkens a lot easier on Accutane. I think the same happens to the sclera.
My eyes also easily turn a little reddish sometimes just by cold air exposure. I hate it.