Posts Tagged “accutane”

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A rehashed story gets legs again. I remember years ago when I took Accutane, actually I took it twice, I did have some of the side effects of depression. As most people that take Accutane are teenagers with hormonal issues already this can be expected. The thing that is most important for any parent or loved one to watch for signs of depression in people taking Accutane.

Anyway this is a true side effect that was reported originally back in the 80’s.

Canadian scientists believe that taking Accutane, the most commonly used acne drug, is associated with a higher risk of depression.

According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, isotretinoin, the active ingredient of Accutane, doubles the risk of depression.

CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre scientists say while depression is a rare side effect of isotretinoin therapy, close monitoring of isotretinoin users is necessary due to the serious consequences of depression.

They concluded that psychiatric assessments of patients prior to and during isotretinoin therapy are crucial. Read the rest of this entry »

As an acne sufferer you have probably wondered for years what you can do to naturally get rid of your acne. Most dermatologists are quite happy to very quickly throw a prescription for Accutane or Tetracycline at you. How about more holistic natural methods to treat your acne? Eating is a great natural acne treatment.

Instead of immediately trying to treat your acne with pills or creams why not try your best to be more healthy in the way that you eat and see what your eating is going to do to help you.

Most dermatologists and the health industry as a whole do not seem to care much about the food you eat but think about your body and the way that your body reacts to food in other ways. If you eat greasy food how do you feel? Tired? If you drink too much coffee how do you feel? Shaky and distracted? Read the rest of this entry »

I just ran across this warning from the FDA about how you should never buy Accutane online. As you may or may not know there are a lot of health issues and warnings related to Accutane. When I took Accutane for my acne years ago I had to get blood tests done before, during and after I got my Accutane prescription and as well there is a risk of birth defects if you are taking Accutane while you are pregnant.

Accutane is a potentially dangerous prescription medicine that should only be taken under the close supervision of your healthcare professional and pharmacist. If you are pregnant or may get pregnant, Accutane can cause birth defects, miscarriage, premature births, and death in babies. (Isotretinoin is sold under the brand name of Accutane and in generic versions called Amnesteem, Claravis, and Sotret.) Read the rest of this entry »

The FDA has been busy with advisories lately and here is one about buying Accutane online. Apparently Accutane is a bad thing to buy online and based on how it can increase blood pressure you should really talk to your doctor before getting a prescription.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is launching a special Web page to warn consumers about the dangers of buying isotretinoin (Accutane) online. Isotretinoin is a drug approved for the treatment of severe recalcitrant nodular acne that does not respond to antibiotics. Improperly used, isotretinoin can cause severe side effects, including birth defects. Serious mental health problems have also been reported with isotretinoin use.

The Web page, http://www.fda.gov/buyonline/accutane, will be positioned as a search result on Google and other search engines when a consumer initiates an online search for the drug under any one of its four names (Isotretinoin is sold under the brand name of Accutane and in generic versions called Amnesteem, Claravis, and Sotret.) The web page warns that the drug “should only be taken under the close supervision” of a physician or a pharmacist, and provides links to helpful information, including ways to check that drugs purchased online come from legitimate pharmacies.

“This Web page is yet another step we’re taking to ensure the safe use of a drug that can provide significant health benefits when used properly, but that can also cause very serious side effects if used without supervision of a health professional,” said Steven Galson, M.D.,M.P.H., Director, FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

FDA and the manufacturers of isotretinoin have put in place special safeguards to reduce the risks of isotretinoin, including a strict distribution program, called iPLEDGE. The aim of the distribution program is to ensure that women using isotretinoin do not become pregnant, and that women who are pregnant do not use isotretinoin. Isotretinoin is available only at a pharmacy that is registered for this distribution program. Additionally, the distribution program is designed to prevent the sale of isotretinoin over the internet. Dispensing must comply with the agency’s risk management requirements.

There are a couple of products that I have recommended in the past to combat and cure acne. The first one is the herbal product Acnezine and the other is the Acne no more program

In my teens and twenties I went through trying every thing I could to get rid of my acne. I used everything from Accutane to Tetracycline to Benzoyl Peroxide and this natural list brings back some memories. All of these things do work, although I have never tried the vinegar, and are a great addition to your daily skin regimen.

Acne suffers usually go out and spend good money on common over-the-counter acne treatment products. The truth is, most of these products are full of chemicals that can actually slow down the healing of acne, and irritate your skin, causing farther breakouts.

When an acne product has 20 ingredients listed on it, it can be hard to know if one of those ingredients is actually stopping you from having success. It can be even harder when you can’t pronounce the ingredient, much less know what it is and how it is going to affect your skin.

The very sick thing is that most popular acne treatments are not only much more expensive than common household items, but they also don’t always work as well either. With that in mind, I will list some basic household items that can work wonders on clearing up your skin.

Baking soda

- A very cheap cooking ingredient that most people have in their homes already, baking soda can be used as a great scrub. The purpose of a scrub is to exfoliate the skin, removing dead skin that can eventually clog pores and lead to acne spots.

To start off, you’ll want to mix a small amount of baking soda with some water for form a paste. Baking soda is very effective as a scrub, so you want to be sure to be extra careful when applying it to your face. Gently massage the paste into your skin for ten to fifteen seconds. Then rinse the baking soda off, and pat your face dry with a clean towel.

Apple Cider Vinegar

- Though most people that use vinegar to treat acne use the apple cider form of vinegar, you can also use plain old regular vinegar. Regardless of which type you use, vinegar can be very helpful with it comes to clearing up acne. It can kill off acne causing bacteria, balance your skin’s pH, and absorb extra oil on your skin.
Read the rest of this entry »

I took Accutane years back for a couple of cycles and it worked well on my acne. I have run into a few very scary reports on Accutane and the dangers that it poses to acne sufferers. I know that in my youth I did not care about side effects of any medication because of course I would not be a statistic but these reports are making me very nervous for the youth of today that are following the same treatments that I did.

Accutane, the final frontier…for Acne. For ages, acne sufferers had only a few treatment options available to them, many with less than stellar results. Also, they needed to go through the pain staking task of applying prescription topical medications along with taking oral medications. Even then, the more severe cases would never fully be healed. However, nowadays, for those severe acne sufferers there is a “miracle” drug that does the job and does it well. This drug of which i speak, my friends, is Accutane, the Acne Killer.

Accutane is used to treat severe cases of acne which have not been healed through conventional antibiotics and topical creams. It is used to control all of the underlying causes of acne by normalizing your follicles, decreasing sebum production, reducing inflammation and limiting the growth of bacteria. Accutane treatment typically lasts from 4 to 6 months. It is also very costly ranging from $2000 to $4000 (depending on frequency of dermatological visits, lab tests, etc.). Other names for accutane include Amnesteem, Claravis, Isotretinoin and Sotret.

Accutane Dangers

But wait, there is always some sort of “bad” that comes with the “good”. Although Accutane is the most powerful acne medication to date, it has many side effects that prevent many dermatologists from prescribing it to every acne sufferer. It should only be prescribed in worst case scenarios where all other treatments have failed. Even then, the acne sufferer should be aware of it’s side effects, the worst of which is suicide!

The FDA posted an alert in 2005 that said all patients taking accutane should be closely watched for serious symptoms including depression, suicidal tendencies, sadness, short tempers, anger, loss of social interaction, psychosis, loss of motivation and changes in appetite. If any of these symptoms begin to appear, the patient is advised to stop taking accutane and to seek professional advice. In 2002, a director for the FDA told a congressional committee that they received over 3,000 reports of adverse psychiatric symptoms and over 170 reports of suicide attempts connected to the use of Accutane.

In order to decide whether this treatment is right for you; you should discuss with your doctor how severe your acne is, what other treatments you’ve tried, the possible benefits of accutane, the possible side effects of accutane and any other health related issues that may affect you while taking accutane (i.e. use of antibiotics, depression, etc.)