Health Forum

It's truely amazing. I finished my 6 month dose about 2 years ago, and I still get barely any pimples. Maybe one every 5 months or so. It will make your skin look worse in about 2 weeks after starting- your skin will become very oily and break out badly. Then, about a week-2 weeks after that, your skin will DRY out MAJOR, and your pimples will slowly go away. After about 3 months, you should't have any more pimples anywhere. Make sure you moisturise a LOT, and vasaline is really good for your lips. It does not heal acne scars, because those are actual scars, and parts of your skin now. Good luck!

Your skin may get worse before it gets better (mine did). Accutane also really dried me out. It was really weird going from super oily to super dry (I had never had dry skin before, so I didn't really know how to take care of it...I learned to love Cetaphil cleanser, which was reccomended to my by my derm. Accutane didn't really do anything for my scarring. The only thing that really worked for those (after the Accutane treatment was done-my skin was too sensitive for these things while on Accutane) was exfoliating and and at home chemical peel kit. Talk to your derm. They've seen everything and they'll be able to answer all your questions.

Both my brother and I took accutane in highschool. His experience was fantastic, his skin has been clear ever since. I did two cycles of accutane when I was 16/17. It worked good while I was on it, but once I stopped taking the medication it got bad again. 4 years later my skin isn't any better, but its probably because I compulsively pick at it.

Anyway, things to look out for: It makes your skin CRAZY dry. Moisturize every day as much as possible. My lips were always cracking during the night, so slather on that lip chap as well.
Sun exposure can be an issue, so just make sure you use a moisturizer with sun screen.
As well it can affect your liver, so you need to get regular blood tests (say, once or twice during a cycle) and you shouldn't drink while on it. (If you do, be prepared to get drunk significantly faster than you usually would.)

It will not help with acne scars, as far as I know. There has been some speculation that it can cause or worsen suicidal thoughts/depression, so if there is a history of that in your family you will want to be aware. Myself, it made me feel a little wonky, but I was also going through a hard time, so that might be why I felt so down.