I had really bad acne and my doctor recommended Accutane as the last thing after nothing else worked. Initially it got a lot worse than it was and by the 5th month it was a little better than it used to be. My doctor told me I was taking it for too long of a time period and I had to stop the treatment and now my acne is just worse than ever. It didn't work for my buy my other 3 friends that took have completely clear skin that you could never even tell they had a pimple. I would definately try it but it doesn't work for some pepole.

i would reccomend this to anyone. I was on tetracycline for about 3 or 4 months before, and it made my acne better, but not great. I was also on diferin as well, in conjunction with the tetracycline. Overall, the acutane has done much more than tetracycline did, and my confidence has risen because my face is clearer

Don't be afraid to try it. I was so scared for the longest time, but now I wish I had done it years ago. Would have saved me a lot of grief. If you have bad side effects, just stop taking it. At least you would have tried. I actually had someone tell me that my skin looked beautiful and that it was glowing!

I am a 22 year old female who has suffered from acne since I was about 12 or 13. Nothing worked for my face. I even tried proactive, most people have great results but it didnt really help me, I tried numerous dermatologist recommend stuff, and nothing worked. My dermatologist finally wrote a prescription for Accutane. It made me psychotic. I went on it for like two or three weeks. I was having visual hallucinations which I had never had before in my entire life! I went off ot it because I went on birth control pills and it doesnt combine well with those. A couple years later my dermatologist put me on it again because I wasnt on the birth control anymore. The same thing happened. When I was off accutane I had no hallucinations but the minute I went back on it the hallucinations started again. It can also cause severe depression. I recall a story on the news where a teenager got so depressed while on accutane that he ran an airplane into flordia. This stuff should be off the market!

This had cleared me up completely for a whole year and a half. Of course my hormones (I have PMDD which is severe PMS) has caused me to break out here and there. I took fish oil for the joint and back pain and it helped. I drank a ton of water and moisturized my lips like crazy. I also kept a fairly healthy diet because my dermatologist told me I needed to in order to keep my blood tests healthy. I recommend this to those who are willing to go through dryness, achy joints (take fish oil), fatigue, and bloody noses for at least 6 months. It was worth it and it gave me confidence, something I always wanted and yearned for. I'm a little concerned that my acne is coming back (again, I think it is because my hormonal imbalance is pretty bad right now) but I'd be willing to take Accutane all over again if I needed to.

Male. 6'1". 155lbs or 70kg. 18 years old. 1st month: 40 mg side effects: dryness, minor lower back pain, a little bit of stomach problems, tiredness. 2nd month: 80 mg side effects: dryness, bearable back pain, tiredness, unmotivated (not too extreme), dream like feeling. i am familiar with this dream like feeling because of my anxiety. but it has gotten abit worse because my anxiety towards the medication is high. I have had anxiety for around 7 years. one of my biggest fears i always worry about is going insane (crazy). and i noticed one of the possible side effects were psychosis. so i'm constantly worrying (every day all day) about what if i'm going crazy. i've had these what if i'm going crazy thoughts for years, but it has gotten worse bacuase of the possible side effect of accutane. to the point where i get stressed and feel mentally drained or ruins my day. how possible is psychosis on accutane? is my dose too high? other than that i feel okay, the side effects are bearable.

I went through an accutane treatment when I was 16. I am 28 now. I recall being extremely dry, and no moisturizer would help. I also remember being so depressed that I asked for help and went on antidepressants shortly after my accutane round (about a yearish). My skin cleared up while I was taking it, but the drawbacks were not worth it. My acne returned as soon as the treatment was over. I know now I have hormonal acne and rosacea so perhaps Accutane wasn't the best choice. I personally think it's too severe of a treatment for anyone under 18 - heck, for any age really - and if you are considering it, please go through all other possibilities first, like getting a blood test done for hormonal imbalances and attack the acne that route. I also suggest seeing an esthetician as they can do some amazing, cleansing facials. It won't solve the problem permanently but it's a far more enjoyable experience than Accutane - you are pampering yourself and won't be poisoning yourself with vitamin A. Plus de-stressing can help with acne ;) My acne is exactly the same as it was before I took it. I don't mean to sound doom and gloom - this is simply my perspective on it. It could work beautifully for you if you have severe cystic acne that is unresponsive to hormonal treatments. Just be wise and perhaps see it as a last resort.

5 stars for when you're on it and the remission afterwards. My happiest times were actually spent on this drug seeing the changes in my skin sometimes on a rapid basis! The remission afterwards is incredible - no side effects of the drug and clear skin. Unfortunately I've taken it twice and it cleared me for 8 months, and 1 year 2 months respectively. Now I'm about 6 months into the second relapse and I'm devastated. Would award minus stars for what I'm going through now. I used Differin after the first course and Isotrex after the second to try to prolong the remission but the relapse is in full force now. If I can't clear it I would consider a third round. Amazing, life changing drug for me. When I was on it and for the remission afterwards.

I was so excited to try this after 30 years with acne. I've never had any side effect to any medication and never been on antidepressants or had mental health issues. From the reviews I read I got the impression most people were fine on it, that the main problem was that it might not work, and that a few people who had bad effects had caused it to be prescribed more carefully than was maybe helpful for acne sufferers. I was started on only 20mg and told that would be put up to 40 and 60. By about day 2 I noticed my thoughts were harder to stop than normal, eg I would find it hard to switch off at night, and I woke up from vivid dreams (thoughts still persistently going on in the background) and found it hard to get back to sleep. I had read about this from other reviews who just persisted with treatment so thought that was to be expected and carried on. After about a week I had hardly any dryness on that dose but could tell that my skin was becoming less acne prone - it just felt un-itchy and after suffering from acne for as long as I have I can generally feel when my skin is in a state where I'm liable to break out or not, and the isotretinoin was obviously doing its job, but I kept bursting into tears. By day 9, my skin was clear, but I was in hell. I could only see the bad things about my life, which were blown out of all proportion to a psychotic degree, I was constantly crying, there was no hope, I didn't see anything positive in life or feel the same about my family, and the back of my brain felt like it was coated with tar. I was missing sleep and had lost my appetite. The thought of raising the dose even higher and being on it for months more was unthinkable. There seemed to be no guarantees that this mental change would not be permanent to some degree (I could find studies that showed depression and brain changes after taking it, but none that showed the depression and brain changes as having then gone away after say a few months of stopping treatment, which I would have expected the drug companies might do if it was possible) and the two people I know who have taken accutane don't get spots but are miserable - one is constantly having headaches and is just generally unhealthy and the other is depressed. So I stopped and thankfully the stuff is out of my system (6 weeks ago). I guess we're all different and you can't tell what your response will be.

Took it for 6months left with indented scarrings. I never get scars before accutane no matter how big my zit was wether i pop it or not, it never left a scar. But every pimple i got during my course left dents. I don't know if i'm gonna keep getting them but accutane is my biggest regret. I should've tried other options. If you're planning to go on accutane, pls don't risk it. You may or may not get the results you want. You can't be sure. I'm having a lot of gas and constipation as well.