Hi everyone.

Background: I'm 30, have moderate acne and have been on antibiotics for around 10yrs, off and on, before finally being prescribed Accutane. I'm in my first week of it, on 20mg.

I'm curious about the links between accutane and arthritis, and would be grateful for your thoughts. I've seen lots of anecdotal evidence online (yes, I know the dangers of reading about Accutane on the net!), plus a few scientific papers / articles (no large scale studies though, mainly just a few reports of cases), and the warning on the packaging that it's a side effect experienced by less than 1 in 10,000 people.

The reason I'm curious is that both my parents have it (RA and osteo) and my grandparents had it too, so I'm at a higher risk from the off. As such, I'm starting to wonder whether taking Accutane is a silly idea - am I just trading one problem for an elevated risk of another that will even more severely affect my quality of life in future?

Any thoughts / experiences you could share with me would be gratefully received.