Accutane is a very strong acne medication that has possibly many side effects. This web page is intended to share my own experiences with this drug to help potential users assess the benefits and risks. Of course, everyone responds differently to this drug, so don't expect your results to be the same. Be warned, if you feel squeamish looking at close-ups of horrible acne, I advise you to stop viewing this page.

I personally believe that it's what's inside that counts. However, it would be naive to ignore the fact that we depend a lot on our personal appearance when we go about our daily lives. I'm posting this web page not for some weird desire to expose my face to the world, but rather to add to the growing amount of anecdotal information available about Accutane. As you can see, I have had great success with this drug, and have seen great improvements.

I had strong acne all throughout high school and tried many topical creams and antibiotics, with no success. Then I took a full treatment of Accutane and my acne disappeared, for about two months. Then it started coming back again, and in a few more months, the acne had re-established itself on my face. Thus I began another round of treatment. 

I have been quite lucky with this drug, having experienced only moderate side effects, all of which can be somewhat relieved with other treatments. To summarize, the side effects I've experienced are:

• Peeling lips (use lip balm). This can be uncomfortable, especially if I tried to peel off the dry dead skin with my hands, which caused them to bleed (ugh).
• Very dry skin (use moisturizer) The BEST moisturizer I've found is called Glaxal Base. A pharmacist recommended it to me. It's a pretty pricey cream but it really worked for me. I'm not sure if it was coincidence, but I was having no success with Accutane for about three months until I started using Glaxal Base before going to bed and in the morning. Then my acne almost magically disappeared in about two weeks (that also was the same time I started taking Accutane with a meal instead of with just orange juice). Now that I am finished my Accutane treatments I am still using Glaxal Base every day and if I get acne, it disappears or lessens in a couple of days if I use Glaxal Base on it. I think what is happening is that it makes the skin so healthy around the acne that it is able to fight off the acne better.
• Reddening of the whites of the eyes (use eye drops). It is somewhat shocking to look in the mirror and see that the whites of my eyes have turned slightly red. Fortunately, using eye drops and getting some sleep seems to turn them white again.

These side effects subsided after I stopped taking Accutane in my first round of treatment, and soon after finishing my second round of treatment.

Journal Entries

April 23, 2003

This is my second time taking Accutane.  I sure hope that it will improve from here. This photo was taken with a really cheap camera, so in reality my face wasn't that yellow.

May 11, 2003
Click here to see an enlargement.
My skin is much clearer, except I have got this little area of redness that seems a bit irritated. The improvement is also partly due to the fact that I took the picture with a much better camera. I'm currently taking 80mg of Accutane a day, split up into two pills, one taken at breakfast and the other with dinner. Skin is very dry and lips are peeling and dry. I've been told that the higher the dosage is during the treatment period, the longer the effects will last once the treatment ends. I don't remember what my dosage was for my first round of treatment, but I think it was lower than the current dosage.

June 16, 2003
Click here to see an enlargement.
Well, I must say that I am very pleased. My skin has greatly improved, and I am almost completely satisfied with it. I'm going to continue treatment for another 5 weeks just to make sure.  I was surprised that the majority of the improvement occurred over a week, just after I started taking two 40mg pills together with supper, instead of taking one pill at breakfast and one pill at supper. I was told that Accutane is absorbed much better when taken with fatty foods, such as milk, and some kind of meal with some fat content. The problem I was having before was that I only had a glass of orange juice for breakfast, and this wasn't enough fat to allow me to absorb the pill properly.

December 20, 2003

This is what my face looks like after having been off Accutane for about four months. I am still using the amazing moisturizer Glaxal Base every day, and this seems to help prevent pimples from forming because the skin is not irritated. It also has a soothing effect on the skin and improves the healthiness and appearance of the skin. I can not say enough good stuff about Glaxal Base!

Feb. 29, 2004

Someone emailed me and asked how I am doing, so I thought I'd give a little update. As you can see, I have a few small colorations on my skin due to very minor acne, but in general my skin is quite clear. I've been off my second round of Accutane for about six months and generally feel pretty good about my skin. Now all I have to do is try to get into the gym more!

May 21, 2004

Time for a little update.... it's been about 9 months since I stopped my second round of treatment with Accutane, and my skin is doing fine - still not perfectly clear, but is OK for my standards. I am still getting the occasional acne appearing, but it seems to be limited to about 1 major pimple and just a few areas with minor acne. From my experience I would say that a second round of treatment is worth it, just because now it seems that although the acne has come back slightly, it seems less intense than it was before.

Aug. 19 2008
Little update. My skin is doing fine these days. Click here for a fairly recent photo.

Rachelle writes:

I have started taking accutane, and found much hope by your photo-account of the experience. I was wondering: the galaxal base you mentioned: was it the cream or the lotion?

another thing which I should mention is that I discovered much later that my skin was always being irritated by the cheap shampoo (no name grocery store brand) that I was using. When I switched to Joico "Daily Care" Daily Conditioning shampoo (KERAPRO Conditioning Shampoo) I noticed a big difference in my skin right away. That stuff is only supposed to be sold in salons and it was $10 for a 300ml bottle, but it's very concentrated so one bottle lasts for a long time.

The problem with regular shampoo is that it's alkaline, whereas skin and hair is slightly acidic, so there was a reaction going on between the bad shampoo and the skin/hair. The Joico stuff is pH 4.5-5.5 which is about the same acidity as skin/hair.

Cheers, Geoff

Links

Other Accutane Journals.

The Acne Site