Are there any alternatives to accutane?

I use benzyl peroxide cream at night and take large doses of vitamin C to help with mine (500+ mg daily). There isn’t much you can do to avoid routine when treating acne and routine is really the best way. My advice is try vitamin C and E (if your stomach doesn’t react poorly to large doses of vitamin E) and wash your face 2–3 times a day with a cleanser and use benzyl peroxide on the breakouts in morning/evening.

Unfortunately, Accutane is pretty much the gold standard for treatment these days, with either antibiotics or topicals as your only other options. If you’ve got bad, cystic acne and choose to ditch Accutane now, you may have years of frustration going through the mostly temporary solutions that antibiotics and creams provide. At that point, you may give up and decide that you should have just stuck it out with the Accutane.

A med like Accutane requires an adjustment period, and if you can weather that, the symptoms may lessen. That being said, it’s a pretty serious drug and I’d be concerned about the depression issues. Definitely address this side effect with your doctor immediately.

As for your other symptoms, if you drink lots of water, use Aquaphor on your lips, exfoliate with a gentle daily cleansing cloth like Biore, and use a high-test, pharmaceutical-grade moisturizer with no additives – like Vanicream, you’ll notice a huge difference in the dryness and flaking.

New laser treatments show promise, but right now they are very costly, not covered by insurance, require multiple treatments and take a long period of time to show results. If you’re patient and want to give up on Accutane altogether, you could just hold off to see if these technologies improve.

Just a follow up:

I’ve been on an antibiotic and a certain gel for about 1.5 weeks now and my complexion is great. There are very few side effects, thank goodness. People have been complimenting me on how nice my skin is (they already knew how much trouble I was having).

According to my dermatologist (and new favorite person), acne is caused by 4 things: bacteria, oil in the skin, genetics and “improper” aging (puberty). Apparently, the cause of my acne was bacteria oriented or oil oriented.

Thanks for your suggestions.

That’s great to hear Zack! I would just be interested to hear what your derm has planned for after the antibiotics. You can’t stay on those forever. Hopefully though, this course of treatment will be a long-term solution for you : )

Well, when I get back from vacation (early January), he said that I would be able to have laser surgery. I already booked the appointment, and it’s good that it’s in January or February because it’s the winter and there is less sun that can harm my skin during the healing process. He also recommended that I eat more fruit because that’s good with the immune system.

Glad to see you stopped the Accutane. I took the stuff in HS and recently found out it was taken off the market for some pretty serious disorders. Ugh. I wish they would be more careful about that stuff…