Oral Antibiotic
Efficacy
56%
Based on All Available Studies
Strength of Evidence
Note: Should never be used on its own and for a maximum of 3 months.
Oral Antibiotic
Acne.org’s Real World Take
Antibiotics should be used for a maximum of 3 months, provide only moderate benefit and only to some people, and may lead to side effects and strains of resistant bacteria. Studies do show doxycycline can reduce severe acne in the short term, and as far as oral antibiotics are concerned, it’s usually the go-to, but approach with caution and stay your own advocate.
Oral Antibiotic
How to Get It
Have a dermatologist? Make an appointment to get this medication. Don't have a dermatologist? See The American Academy of Dermatology Physician Database to find one.
Used Doxycycline? Rate It:
Choose from 1 to 5 stars
January 7, 2017
Another dead end...no help
I'm 19 year old and been struggling with mild persistent acne and very oily skin since I was 13. I was on Limecycline for over a year and that helped a couple of years ago however it didnt last. Recently with going to University my skin has become the worst it has ever been and I am sick to death of feeling so insecure about my face, I hate having to constantly cover my skin with makeup to be able to go outside the house. My dermatologist has given me this before making the decision to go on accutane (which I am waiting to go on now FINALLY) - it has been a little over three months and it has barely helped at all, infact my skin just continues to get worse :( it honestly is so depressing. The first month on this made my skin terrible, it has slightly improved since then but I cant see this as a long term fix at all. It's time to get this acne and confidence battle over with and i pray accutane will be my cure :). Perhaps if your acne is very moderate and tolerable this may help, however not for more severe cases.
ashleybauchert
December 19, 2017
you said mild acne? Like cheeks and jaw with like 4 zits on each side or something? Did doxy makie it more moderate or was it just your skin continuing to break out how it normally would.
January 4, 2017
not working, yet
I've been on it for about 2months, I don't know if it's psychic but I don't think this is working for my inflammatory acne. if anything, it only made my acne break out the week 2 and 3 of taking it. Thanks to it I have lots more scars to get rid of. My Dr said as there are non-real improvements by now, I will have to take it for more than 3 months. Maybe it gets worse before it gets better. will update later!
March 18, 2017
This is exactly the same as me, I've been on doxycycline for 2 months now and it hasn't changed my skin, if anything made it worse. I mainly was breaking out in the 2nd and 3rd week also. And yes I never use to scar even though I would always squeeze a pimple when I got one, scarring was just so rare for me. But now every pimple I get scars. But I'm just going to wait it out and hope it eventually gets better
December 19, 2017
Howd it go?
January 3, 2017
Cleared my skin (for a couple of months)
Cleared my skin completely.. to the point I had baby skin again.. unfortunately just like with any antibiotic, acne comes back after you stop taking it
January 1, 2017
be patient and it will work
Hello everyone, I'm 13 yrs old so if you are not a teenager then you probably have a different skin type to me but i'm also middle eastern ( Kurdish to be precise.) I was previously on a acne drug called tetralysal and it didn't really do the magic on my skin, so I went back to my local doctor and she prescribed me tetracycline/doxycycline 1 tablet a day, at the start,the drug didn't really kick it and i had a few yellow breakout that left a scar but as i reached the end of the month my skin hadn't had a major breakout for about 2 weeks and with daily washing my face is much more clearer and my mum has noticed a difference in my skin but unfortunately i have acne scars,there not major but there is some red scars which really does bother me. I would recommend this if your acne isn't as severe but if you have really bad acne then go on accutane. Lot of people say do not drink or eat dairy products as they do your skin hell, but i've been enjoying full fat milk and lots of chocolate and it has not made a difference to my skin at all so is probably all a myth. please do not use heavy facial scrubs on your face EVERYDAY as it will leave your skin feeling rough and not smooth, it will also scrub off a layer of skin which is vital to preventing acne , so make sure you gently scrub your face and only scrub once a month in the t-zone,chin and nose.DO NOT SCRUB EVERYDAY. also does anyone know what to do about my scarring? will it go because im 13 and im still growing? Many thanks
naz
btw doxy will not work in a month it will take time
December 8, 2016
1.5 months in...no real improvement
I have been on doxy for 46 days. I have a mixture of inflammatory and non inflammatory acne and face has not improved at all. If anything I seem to be getting a lot more pustules on my face than I did before taking it. Regarding back and chest, every other day I wake up and it looks the smallest bit better and then the next day it looks a lot worse (red bumps) and this continues. It could be the creams and washes I am using clears up the redness and makes it look a bit better on the 'little bit better days'. So far I will give it 2 stars just because my chest looks the best it has in a year on the 'little bit better days' (although it is still pretty severe on these days, but better). But overall my skin hasn't improved yet and is in someways getting worse. I am hoping that at 3 months this will have changed and I will keep at it and update either way. If not the only pill I haven't tried is accutane!
May 30, 2017
....update.... it didn't work at all 7 months down the line :(:)
October 27, 2016
No results yet
I have been on this a month and saw no results so far. My dermatologist has me on it for two months so I'll see what I happens.
December 19, 2017
Howd it go
October 16, 2016
Worked, and then relapse after a year
I took this for about 6 months after a severe cystic outbreak (this outbreak was a relapse after accutane). Definitely cleared up my skin like a miracle, results were almost instantaneous that even my doctor was surprised. No purge, all inflammation just went down and my face was smooth. I could see my skin and the contours of my face again. (NOTE: I simultaneously eliminated dairy and sugar, and took probiotics after the antibiotics gave me a yeast infection). Here I am, about a year after completing the 6-month course, with a relapse of cystic acne. Not as severe as before doxycycline, but still pretty bad. Even though it worked at that time, I'm never taking antibiotics again, just because I felt like I was poisoning my insides for 6 months. And seems to be a temporary solution for me because here we go again with another bout of breakouts.
August 19, 2016
Not for me, but maybe worth a shot
I was prescribed this after I had a very bad experience with Minocycline (headaches, and possibly pseudotumor cerebri).
I got headaches right off. I tried it for a couple of days, but it still was giving me head pain. I don't know if I'm just not meant to take antibiotics (I've heard doxycycline is related to minocycline) or what, but after what happened with the minocycline I wasn't willing to risk staying on a whole week.
It didn't work for me, but that doesn't necessarily mean it won't work for you.
August 22, 2016
Did you find anything that worked for you? I have peri oral dermatitis and I have to take either minocycline or doxycycline...... I CANNOT tolerate Minocycline and Doxycycline is tolerable but I feel so strange on ti and I don't like it.
August 19, 2016
Worked immediately where expensive topicals didn't
I have always had acne problems and a few years ago (age 30) it got insanely out of control all over the sides of my face. Tried everything over the counter. No effect. Dermatoligist sold me 2 very expensive topicals that had zero effect. After all that finally, this super cheap antibiotic was prescribed. I think I was supposed to take it for 2 weeks. I had to stop somewhere around 1 week because of a side effect that made my eyes get swollen at night. Even stopping early cleared up my acne from severe all over to light around my jaw/neck. Since then I rarely use soap on my face. I tone with witch hazel, put tea tree oil on my acne spots and only lotion on occasion. I have kept it under control this way for about 3 years now. Also interesting is that about 2 years ago I started taking a low dose ssri. It clears up my acne even more. I believe this is truly chemical vs. Mentally induced. After stopping the ssri the acne quickly starts popping up around my jaw despite no return of depression symptoms.
March 16, 2017
I've been on SSRIs for almost a year now and if anything my acne has gotten worse but it's probably for other reasons. There's no scientific evidence that SSRIs make acne better. Be careful before you take someone's advice...
July 23, 2016
Worked for a while but then skin got worse than before!
I took Doxycycline for about 13 month and though the progress was slow, my skin began to make some improvement after i'd been taking it for around 3 months. My skin wasn't perfect, I still got spots and it wasn't good enough that i would feel confident leaving the house without wearing makeup, but i figured it would get better. however after about 8 months my skin started slowly getting worse again, and by 11/12 months i was in tears on a daily basis about how bad my skin was (HUGE eruptions of cystic acne all over my face and back) and how much it hurt to touch. This leads me to think that perhaps a lot of the antibiotics encouraging effects may have been in fact down to the weather (my skin starting getting worse as the seasons changed and it got colder.) It may help some people but since coming off these and switching my birth control methods to co-cyprindiol (dinette) pill from the implant my skin is looking better than ever.
September 26, 2016
Sounds like you developed resistance to the antibiotic. It happens to almost everyone at some point. Glad to hear your skin is better now.