Acne mystery cleared up, study says

[MarkCollette]

Bah, that depression thing is BS. The only reason that even became an issue was because of that politician's son who committed suicide. They needed to blame it on something so that it wouldn't ruin his political career, and the one medication he was taking was Accutane. There was a story of a kid who lived in Tampa, FL (local for me) who crashed a prop plane into an office building on purpose. The first thing his parents screamed was "Accutane!!," but he hadn't taken it in months.

I'm highly surprised that you're dismissing the depressive effects of accutane so readily. It's as if you have no idea at all what you're talking about.

Besides all the documented cases of people who have all noticed themselves being depressed while on it, and all the newsgroups of people talking about it, I think I'll just mention my own story.

I've been on accutane several times now, since I'm one of the small minority of people for whom a single 6 month course was insufficient. Not only am I generally more depressed while on it, but I experience a strange effect where if I take my pill too late, like 12 to 24 hours too late, then some small bad thing that day will give me suicidal thoughts. And within 15 minutes of taking my pill, I'm ok again. I remember a few weeks ago holding a knife in my hands just thinking over and over how I wanted to plunge it into my chest, and bleed all over the floor. So, I put the knife down and ran to go take my accutane pill. Soon I was fine. Sure, it doesn't do it on its own - it requires a trigger event, but I know that when those kind of events happen otherwise, that it's no big deal.

In fact, I've probably dealt with at least 10 different symptoms of accutane over the years, any of which meaning you should probably stop taking the drug. But, I know it'd be worse with the acne, so I keep taking it.

There are so many different symptoms, that people all seem to get differently, that I don't think anyone should publically state they're B.S. Just because you don't know anyone experiencing them, or admitting to experiencing them, in no way means that millions of other people aren't dealing with them.

 

[dcollierp]

Quote:
I'm not trying to flame here, but I'm wondering if there's any data that backs up the claim. Often times, these things cure themselves and when we try treatments that "seem" to work, it's often a coincidence of a self-limiting disease getting around to terminating itself while we put ourselves on some course. This could be why charlatans are so successful: Not only do they play upon people's hopes, but they benefit from the occassional fluke that a disease disappears while they administer a treatment, creating the appearance that there's a cause-and-effect relationship between the treatment and the disease.

Therefore, I'm wondering if the phenomenon you've observed has been documented widely and reproduced, especially if it's been evaluated in a clinical setting. A double-blind experiment with a placebo control wouldn't hurt either.

Thanks.

This is just one link to consider, there are many others.

http://www.notmilk.com/gotzits.html

 

[MarkCollette]

I'm not trying to flame here, but I'm wondering if there's any data that backs up the claim. Often times, these things cure themselves and when we try treatments that "seem" to work, it's often a coincidence of a self-limiting disease getting around to terminating itself while we put ourselves on some course. This could be why charlatans are so successful: Not only do they play upon people's hopes, but they benefit from the occassional fluke that a disease disappears while they administer a treatment, creating the appearance that there's a cause-and-effect relationship between the treatment and the disease.

Therefore, I'm wondering if the phenomenon you've observed has been documented widely and reproduced, especially if it's been evaluated in a clinical setting. A double-blind experiment with a placebo control wouldn't hurt either.

Thanks.

This is just one link to consider, there are many others.

http://www.notmilk.com/gotzits.html

I gave up dairy years ago, yet the problem persisted. I believe it helps me a little though.

I've tried vegetarian diets, special acne-killer diets, washing a lot, washing a little, using topical treatments, anti-biotics, accutane, chinese herbs, doing nothing. The only thing I haven't tried, that's been recommended, is to live a stress reduced life. If some magic fairy could show me how to do that, and still pay the bills and do well in university, then I'd be glad.

Oh, and the problem with acne, is that it's like a pyramid of people, where most react just fine to simple treatments, and fewer and fewer don't. So, there technically aren't any charlatans, since it's trivial to come up with a treatment that helps someone, yet still does nothing for those higher up the pyramid.

Oh, and since most treatments work fine for most people, there's little profit in coming up with something better than what we currently have, so there's little research, so we don't have many studies, like what you recommend. At least, that's how a dermatologist explained it to me.

 

[nimmi]

Wow, I'm surprised so many on here have taken Accutane ... I've stayed away from it because of its possible side effect of depression.

I've taken Benzaclin though ... works wonders. So does Doxycycline, but it gives you horrible stomachaches.

of course benzacline works....i have used it so i know. i have just advised my friend to use it. she told me she had bought it from XXXXXXXXXXX ....she has started to use it. i ahev noticed that he pimples are starting to fade out.

 

[Blue Velvet]

Let's not bump a three year old thread to post a link to a drug sales co. K?