Minocycline
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Side Effects

Minocycline is an oral antibiotic that works by fighting bacteria in the body, including in the skin, and also reduces inflammation. It should...

Minocycline is an oral antibiotic that works by fighting bacteria in the body, including in the skin, and also reduces inflammation. It should be used only short term (max. 3 months).

It is usually taken once a day with food, at the same time every day.

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15.6%
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29.3%
3
24.9%
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15.9%
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14.3%

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June 17, 2013
feel so sick
Cold sweats. Feel like puking. Extremely dizzy. Not going to take it again. I walked to the kitchen a little bit ago and i could see stuff moving the way sparklers move when you wave em real fast. I'm having a really hard time even typing this right now because they backlight on my keyboard is freaking me out. I feel like my eyes are moving really fast. I'm going to lay down before I hurt myself.
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June 15, 2013
Horrible Side Effects

Pros:

Cheap

Cons:

Side effects
Short lasting

I was on minocycline for a few months time. My acne started to clear pretty quickly but shortly after my acne must have built a resistance to this medications because I started to break out and it was worse than when I started. My dermatologist then decided it would be better to increase my dosage I agreed and suddenly side effects started to kick in. I woke up one morning and when I got out of bed my knees were in a horrific amount of pain and I collapsed to the ground. I was brought to the hospital right away because my knees were swollen beyond belief. The ER figured I had arthritis and put me on heavy steroids which helped. But after the steroids I would flare up again. I saw specialist after specialist and no one could figure out why I was flaring up. So finally I decided I was just going to stop all the medications I was taking because nothing was helping and I was getting sick. This included stopping the minocycline. Within the week of stopping the medications I was able to walk pain free and my knees went back to normal and lost all the inflammation. Months later I met with my dermatologist and she asked me why I stopped taking the mino. I explained the story and she said oh my god why didn't you call me and tell me that was happening. It was the minocycline causing the flare ups. It is a rare side effects but it can happen. Unfortunatly the damage had already happened and my joint have been damaged. This medication proved to be a 6 months nightmare for me.
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May 3, 2013

Pros:

Improves acne
Lessens redness

Cons:

Not a long-term treatment
Terrible headaches

I started to have acne around the age of 12, and it eventually got worse. My doctor put me on minocycline when I was 14. The first month or two it started to help a little. I noticed that I got fewer breakouts. Though after about 3-4 months it started to get worse again, and now it doesn't even help my skin.
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March 10, 2013
I really cannot say if this product if effective of not.. BUT- side effects were instantly noticed. Prescribed dose of 100mg @ AM & PM. First dose: Wednesday night 100 mg; second dose Thursday morning, 100 mg. I didn't feel myself, thought it was from being tired. I began to realize that I didn't feel present. Continued taking medication, and continued to feel this way.. it is called depersonalization. I have felt spacey, as if I am just going through the motions. I am stopping this medication.
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January 27, 2013

Pros:

Helped a little bit before I got an allergic reaction to it.

Cons:

Severe allergic reaction.

After two weeks of taking it, I started to have an allergic reaction. My eyes started to swell to the point of not being able to open them. I developed hives all over my body. I had swelling in my hands and feet, causing severe pain in my hands, feet, and knees. Loss of appetite for several days. I also was very dizzy. The itching kept me up for most of the night.
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January 22, 2013

Pros:

None

Cons:

I found out I was allergic to this medication and had to stop taking it.

Beware of using Minicycline as many people can develop an allergic reaction while taking. Each time I took the medication I developed severe itching on my arms and legs and eventually broke out with many tiny little hives on the undersides of my forearms. It wasn't nearly a serious reaction but nevertheless something to avoid. Obviously don't continue use if you see signs of an allergic reaction.
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December 10, 2012

Pros:

Worked great for me the first 2 times I used it

Cons:

Didn't work with most recent bout of acne
Made me a bit nauseous, but supposed to take without food
Can't eat 2 hours before or 1 hour after taking
Make me very, very dizzy

I loved it the first 2 times I used it. In combo with topicals it cleared me completely, save for a few blackheads. This round of cystic acne didn't respond at all really. It stopped spreading a tiny bit but no other results. Dizzy as crap the whole time I was on it (but antibiotics often do this to me)! Can't eat right before or after taking to get maximum absorption/benefits was annoying. Had to go on accutane this time around for my now severe (was mod to severe) adult acne :(
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October 23, 2012

Pros:

nothing

Cons:

-gave me dermatographic urticaria after two weeks
-made my acne worse
-sensitivity to sun
-diaria

It didn't work at all and it made me break out more and the thing that worked was the benzoyl peroxide gel that was also prescribed to me along with this antibiotic. After about two weeks, i started getting really itchy skin all over my body and if my skin is rubbed or irritated, it forms this itchy hive. This applies everywhere on my body (arms, legs, back, everywhere).
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October 17, 2012

Pros:

None. Really, none.

Cons:

Did nothing to my skin, maybe made it a little worse but didn't do anything else.

Minocycline did not help me at all. It did absolutely nothing after religiously taking the medication for two months, if not slightly worsen it. Don't waste your time.
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September 29, 2012

Pros:

works great only when taking it.

Cons:

not a long term solution
acne comes back when my doc reduces dosage, so i can eventually quit.
sebaceous hyperplasia (never had it before minocycline)
slow hyperpigmentation, became darker over a 5 year medication period slowly, it was so slow, i couldnt realize it, until some of my friends who havent seen me in a while noticed it for me, i always used SPF 30 moisturizer and stayed away from the sun, so cant be the sun,

i took minocycline for almost 5 years for moderate acne on face and moderately severe acne on my scalp(scalp folliculitis), everyone knows you are not supposed to take anitbiotics for this long, but since it was working while i was on it, my derm keep telling me to be patient, but came back within few days when dosage was reduced, so my derm would go back to the dosage that worked and wanted to try various different topicals(benzaclin/differin/tretinoin/clindamycin) while keeping the minocycline the same. During this long period, i also changed about 4 derms, and all of them seemed to be a big fan of this 'waste-of-time-and-money' drug, i dont know why. Now I changed my derm for the 5th time, the new derm said i shouldnt have taken any antibiotics for this long, and he immediately changed my oral to sulfamethoxazole/trimethaprim with benaclin in the AM, and tazorac(0.1%) before bed, its been my 3rd month on this combo, it is already working like a charm, my derm has already lowered the dosage of oral(after the first two months of two pills a day), i am on one pill a day now, so far so good, i did not get acne so far, which is good because this wasnt the case with minocycline, i feel like i finally found a break, lets see. Even if this doesnt work and if my acne seems to slowly come back in the future, then i will have no other option but to seek Isotretinoin. Bottom line is that there are lots of medications (topical and oral) out there, also over the counter stuff, which only work on people with mild acne and non-oily skin type, even though they advertise it for oily skin. if you have anything moderate acne or more with oily skin, please dont waste your time, money and dont push drugs into your system/body and become a testing ground for medical statistics, instead educate yourself at this wonderful website and similar ones, and ask your derm/doctor staright away for preffered ones, tell them straight away, you read these and you are confident in t
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