Accutane Acne Medicine

You may have heard of Accutane Acne Medicine.  Accutane is actually the commercial name for isotretinoin, a medication that is often used to treat acne, though it should only be prescribed for extremely severe cases of acne that has not been affected by antibiotics or other lesser treatments.  Isotretinoin is a form of vitamin A.  It decreases the amount of sebum (an oil) that is released by the sebaceous (oil) glands, and it increases how quickly your skin renews itself.  Isotretinoin is used to treat severe nodular acne that has not responded to any other treatments, including antibiotics.  This is a very strong acne treatment, one that was first hailed as a sort of "miracle drug" for worst case scenario acne patients who had experienced little or no success with other even strong treatments.

It did not take too long, however, to find out that isotretinoin was capable of causing some very serious side effects.  Because of those potential side effects, it is very important for you to carefully consider your options, and run through a check list, before starting any isotretinoin treatment. One very important thing female patients should know is that they should NOT, under any circumstances, take isotretinoin if you are pregnant, or might become pregnant during treatment, or even for one month after.  Isotretinoin is in the FDA pregnancy category X.  So what does that mean?  This means that this particular drug has been proven to cause severe birth defects.  It can also cause miscarriage or premature birth.

Since Accutane acne medicine can cause these problems, you must take a pregnancy test and have it be negative if your doctor decides that isotretinoin may be a possible solution.  You must then have a second pregnancy test that turns up negative during the first 5 days of your menstrual period before you start taking isotretinoin.  The very strong consensus is that while taking this treatment, you should take more than one form of birth control unless you can stay completely abstinent.  If somehow you manage to become pregnant while under treatment, stop completely and talk to a doctor.

There are other potential serious side affects.  Some patients have felt depressed, irritable, fatigued, and distracted.  In the absolute worst situations, some patients have actually had suicidal thoughts and/or behavior during, and soon after stopping, isotretinoin treatments.  These are obvious red flags.  If you feel any of these, do not wait for it to pass: call your doctor immediately.  The FDA has over 70 reported suicides, and over 1,400 other negative psychiatric effects on Accutane users.  This became more widely publicized with the instance of a teenage boy crashing a small plane into an office building in an attempt to commit suicide, though fortunately the plane was too small and he survived--the family is now suing the company, claiming the medicine caused this reaction.

Accutane was approved in 1982 to treat only a very special type of acne--severe nodular acne that had not responded to other therapies.  This is a critical piece of information to keep in mind.   Critics estimate that most of the 500,000 people in the United States who try it each year have acne too mild for the drug.  This is a treatment that does bring hope to people who have had no other treatments work, but do not take this lightly.  Accutane should only be used on the most severe cases of nodular acne.  If this is the case for you, then this may be the treatment you want.  If not, look around at other options, because Accutane acne medicine should only be used on the most severe cases.

See also : What is accutane acne treatment