Isotretinoin (Accutane®)
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Isotretinoin is a vitamin A derivative called a retinoid that is taken orally and is approved only for severe acne. It is thought...

Isotretinoin is a vitamin A derivative called a retinoid that is taken orally and is approved only for severe acne. It is thought to clear acne primarily through its ability to permanently reduce skin oil (sebum) production.

Isotretinoin is available in capsule form and is usually taken twice a day. Your physician will prescribe an initial dose, and this dose may increase or decrease depending on the response to treatment and side effects.

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3
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2
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1
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Used Isotretinoin (Accutane®)? Rate It:

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June 28, 2010

Pros:

-clear back and chest
-clearer(erererer) face
-confidence

Cons:

Dryness and headaches. Then egsma and other rashes (one in an unpleasant place). Use liberal amounts of Burts Bees on the lips - i went through five containers a month. Use Eucerin Calming Creame for your body parts.

I suffered from prolonged acne all over my body. I had been on stuff for four years with nothing working. I took accutane reluctantly since I had no other option. It has paid off. There is no better feeling then your best friend looking at you, smiling and saying, "I cannot believe how much better your face looks." Or for the first time in my life, I took off my shirt in public without fear. This is no miracle remedy. I am not 100% clear but I would take it again. I survived and I feel better about me. I was on accutane for six months (80 mg). Take the chance for yourself.
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June 21, 2010

Pros:

-lightens scars (fast)
-less breakouts

Cons:

-slightly dry lips
-cant wax your eyebrows while your on it, or 6 months after
-expenisve!

Well I've been on this for almost a week now. I haven't had any big changes so far, except my acne scars are way lighter. im not sure if its the accutane or if its because i recently started using clinique's even better line. A lot of people say that by now they have a lot of dryness, but i've only had dry lips, and it's not that bad, i just have to but chap stick on every few hours. Maybe its because its only been a week though. Oh and my skin is still really oily, which i think is kind of weird. I have high hopes for this, im 15 and being in high school with acne is not fun. I'm on the cheer team and just about all the girls have perfect skin and I'm constantly having to pack on my foundation, which is really annoying. So im hoping it'll get rid of most of the acne before school starts
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June 18, 2010

Pros:

I though it was dramatically meant to cure all forms of acne? However in my case this does not appear to be true. Therefore I do not see any positives with this medication.

Cons:

There seem to be far more negatives having used this medication for nearly 4 months with no apparent results. They consist of the following.
Head aches.
Change in pigments of the skin
Depression/Lack of motivation.
Nose bleeds.
Feeling weak and tired.
Achy joints.
Very dry and itchy skin.
Swollen itchy/red eyes as well as swollen lips and occasionally the nose.

I'm 19 years old and I have been suffering with moderate to serve acne since the age of 13. Having bad skin has really made and impact on my teenage year. Teenage years are suppose to be the best years of your life however when suffering with acne this appears to be far less true. Having acne just makes me feel so ugly especially when the majority of your friends and those around you have lovely clear skin and all appear to be confident this definitely creates an impact on your self esteem as well as your confidence. I think a number of people who do not surfer with acne fail to understands how emotionally distressing it can make an individual who is suffering from acne feel. Furthermore, in spite of this I decided that I would seek professional help by all means being referred to a dermatologist. The first dermatologist I met with decided to put me on a dosage of 35 mg for 4 month as she wanted to avoid any unpleasant side effect. Once I had been 2 weeks in to the course I immediately started to see dramatic result, my skin was clearing up, my scares appeared to be less evident and I was not breaking out. Everyone close to me began to see changes and had complemented me on how great my skin was improving. However worse was yet to come, in spite of this after 1 to 2 months my skin had broken out like it had never done before, I was really worried because I thought I was getting better but in fact I just started to get really worse which was not a nice experience, After 2 and a half month I thought it was time that I would consult my dermatologist as the break out had become even worse. This time I was referred to a different dermatologist and she explained to me that the initial dosage was not correct in correspondence to my body weight therefore she decided that I should go on the full dosage which is 70 mg in the UK. Having been on the full dose for over a month I still am not seeing any significant changes in fact I am still breaking out really
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June 17, 2010

Pros:

You know it's working --> relief
No more greasy hair/skin
Fast results

Cons:

Chapped lips
Nose bleeds
Dry skin/scalp
Limited drinking
Monthly derm. appointments/blood tests

I'm a 20 year old guy who first started getting acne at 17. It never got that bad during high school, but once I got to college it escalated drastically. I've been using minocycline/doxycyline for about a year and a half. They tapered the acne at best. When my derm put me on the tane last month, it was only about 70% of the worst it has been (still pretty bad). I'm on day 30 of accutane at 60mg/day, and I'm about to start an 80mg/day regimen. I know some people go higher, but I have a phenomenal derm who highly recommends not going above 1mg/kg, and I'm 6ft 170lbs. I convinced her that I should go to the elevated dose b/c I'm trying to complete a cycle in 15 weeks (I want to be off the tane when I return to college --> I like to drink heavily :D but i do care about spiked triglycerides and liver failure). So it's been a month now, and I'm already looking better than I have in years. Most people don't seem to get results this quickly; maybe I'm just lucky. The initial flare-up lasted from about day 7-14 with a couple nasty cysts, but nothing apocalyptic happened. Then, all of a sudden, everything sort of faded. Sidebar: my moderate back acne got zapped even more effectively. Okay, so negative aspects. The chapped lips are killer. Aquaphor is great for it, but it's not very portable. I gotta re-apply chapstick at least several times a day. Another bad side effect is joint pain, specifically the back. I 've never had problems like this before. If I'm not very active it's fine, but working out can be really excruciating. I'm also working at a paper mill doing manufacturing work this summer [read: I'm doing heavy lifting and various other manual labor --> my back aches constantly]. Also the whole dry face thing can be taken care of with aquaphor; it makes your face look AOK. Oh, and the dry skin thing isn't a bid deal for me, but then again I have eczema (something the rest of you should be thanking god you don't have; it's just as
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June 16, 2010

Pros:

Cleared Acne

Cons:

only cleared acne until i stopped using it
made me depressed
red skin
chapped lips
dry skin ( some spots worse than others)

I used for 7 months and after the first few months of the chapped lips and sensitive skin it worked and cleared all of my acne...until i was taken off of it and now my face has gone back to the way it was before.
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June 15, 2010

Pros:

Clear skin while you are on the drug and for a couple months after
Skin is soft and younger looking (while on the drug)
No greasy hair

Cons:

The acne comes back!!!!!
DRY LIPS!!!
Flaky Scalp
Waxing burns off skin
Joint pain (on second treatment)

I had to do two treaments about 6 months apart. The acne comes back....yes it does......it takes a couple of months but it comes back!!! The reoccurence of acne is not as bad as it was originally but the skin is no where as clear as it was while on Accutane. During Accutance I used E45 Body lotion (English brand). Great brand! Chap stick for lips....nothing really works so this one was the best. Have to reapply all the time. Clinique liquid facial cleanser for oily skin. Very gentle. Facial Moisturiser - Anything oilfree.
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June 15, 2010

Pros:

perfectly clear skin
smooth complexion

Cons:

red face
dry lips
dry eyes
minor hair loss in first month

I have had light-moderate acne for over ten years. I have been put on every medication under the sun, however these have either worked temporarily or stopped working after finishing treatment. I was finally given a script of accutane this year. I am not going to lie - the first month was not a pleasant experience. My skin was bright red and very sensitive, my lips were cracked and I would pick at them. My face was a combination of red sore acne and peeling skin. However, into the second month everything started to change. It was as if accutane 'pushed' all the gunk out of my pores and everything started to clear up. I am into my fourth month now and my skin is perfectly clear. Accutane has even cleared the bumps on my upper arms that I did not attribute to acne. For me, the results definitely outweigh the side effects. I finally feel free of my acne and I am not conscious of how my skin appears to others. I would definitely recommend this medication, however it is good to research and consider the side effects before starting treatment. Good luck to you all!
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June 14, 2010

Pros:

Made skin much less oily
Cleared some areas
No serious side effects for me
Cheap with insurance

Cons:

Didn't clear biggest problem area
Chapped lips
Some eczema

I am a 22 year old female who has had acne since I was a teenager, but it has worsened in the past few years. My biggest problem area is the side of my face, right below my cheeks. My skin in very oily. I completed 5 months of claravis (generic accutane) and I definitely saw improvements. I have very oily skin and it completely fixed that when I was on it. It made my lips chapped but Aquaphor is the absolute best thing for that. I stopped having body acne completely. Acne on my face cleared except in my main problem area which continued to have about 1 new blemish a week during the course of this medication. I developed some eczema but after moisturizing regularly, it cleared up. I finished 5 months, and when I stopped taking the medicine, my face regained all oiliness within a month, I got body acne again, and my face broke out in places where it hadn't broken out in a very long time! I hope to do another course of this medicine when my dermatologist will allow it. I would absolutely recommend this medication, especially if you have oily skin. I had no serious side effects at all, and really the only annoying thing was the chapped lips and the monthly appointments.
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June 14, 2010

Pros:

Completely cleared up my acne within the 16 weeks I was on it

Cons:

Inconvienent side affects

My skin before: moderate acne, lots of annoying pimples, acne scars, blackheads, very very very oily skin. - Within 2 weeks of being on Roaccutane, my normally digustingly oily skin had been dryer, but not too dry. My skin stayed matte throughout the whole day, and I woke up in the morning with matte skin, unlike before when my skin would be constantly greasy. - At first, as the Doctor said, my acne did get worse. I got a few big spots, but they would clear in just a couple of days. My doctor said this is what normally happens when you first start on it. - Inconvienent side effects: constantly chapped lips (had to constantly put lip balm on, which became quite annoying), sometimes skin would go dry in patches (had to moistrise more than usual when this happened, which I wasn't used to as I normally avoided moistrising because of my normally greasy skin), ezcsma on my arms and legs (which i've never had before, but creams cleared this up, and it disappeared as soon as I came off Roaccutane) and dry inside of nose (happened after about 2 months, my nose became really dry and a little bloody, which was annoying, but not as serious at the nose bleeds I was told I would have by my doctor). - I also had a really random side effect, which was my nails becoming really weak and brittle for about a week, and also sore for a couple of days. But I had no other problems with my nails after that. However, the positives: - My acne is COMPLETELY GONE. - It dried up my oily skin, and my skin has also stayed non-oily when I came off roaccutane, but not as dry as it was when I was on it. - My hair used to go really greasy quickly, and Roaccutane stopped this from happening, and my greasy hair has not returned since I come off it. I am 17 and since I was 11 have suffered really bad with acne. THIS HAS CHANGED MY LIFE! I would recommend it to anyone. The side effects can be annoying, but the end result is so worth it, its worth having chapped li
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June 11, 2010

Pros:

It clears all acne on the face, after your treatment your skin will be spot free

Cons:

It's really drying. It will make your face very red.

This is a really good treatment for acne. When on the drug you should expect very drying skin. I used Dermalogica moisturiser which works very well. Lips also get chapped. Skin will become very red and cracked - this is normal so don't say to yourself "this isn't working". When the treatment stops, your skin will return to its original complexion. Obviously it does nothing to combat the scars however. Avoid standing in bright light because it will make you look awful, because of the redness!
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Finding a Doctor

The right dermatologist can make a big difference to your patient experience and the success of your acne treatment plan. Here are the steps to find a dermatologist who is a good fit:

  1. Use the search feature on the American Academy of Dermatology website to look for board-certified dermatologists in your area, and filter the search results for doctors with a special interest in treating acne.
  2. Read online patient reviews of any dermatologists you are considering and ask people you know whether they have any experience with these dermatologists.
  3. Do your research and go to your first appointment with questions prepared.
  4. Listen to what your gut feeling tells you once you see a dermatologist in person. If you are not completely comfortable, try a different dermatologist.
Find a Doctor Using The American Acacemy of Dermatology Website

Finding a Doctor

Only a select few plastic surgeons specialize in acne scar revision surgery. Be certain to find a provider who specializes in acne scar repair and who is passionate and experienced in this area.

Be sure to:

  • Look at before and after photos, the more the better, especially patients with similar scarring to your own.
  • Be realistic about results. Look for improvement, not a cure.

Questions to ask a potential scar revision specialist:

  • Are you board certified? Be certain that they are board certified.
  • How long have you been performing these procedures? Normally, the more experience the better, however, some younger surgeons may be more on top of the latest procedures.
  • Can I speak to some of your other patients? Ask for references for several patients who had similar scarring and speak to them about the process and their satisfaction with results.

Red flags:

  • Their story changes: As you discuss different treatment options, if they tend to change their mind easily, or agree with whatever you say, consider this a red flag. A confident, experienced surgeon will possess strong, unwavering opinions.
  • Your gut tells you "no": Trust your gut. If you just don't feel that the doctor is the right fit, trust that and move on. On the other hand, if you feel they are the perfect specialist for you, trust that feeling.
Find a Doctor Using the American Society of Plastic Surgeons Website