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I was so glad to read your post on the link between accutane and AS. I was diagnosed with AS last July, but have suffered for more than 12 years. During that time, I have taken two rounds of five months of accutane for my severe acne. Thank god it cured my acne, but everything comes with a price.
The second time I took accutane was last year. After a couple of weeks, I noticed that I was in quite a bit more pain than usual. I refused to stop taking the accutane...I guess I'm too vane. Anyways, over the months, the pain worsened. It spread to my shoulders, ribs, neck, and back of my heels. It was very difficult to breath, move around, and to live a normal life, but I didn't know what was going on. I took 3 ibuprofen every four hours and two baths a day. The erector pilli muscles running up and down my back were often completely contracted for days at a time. I was often shaking and throwing up at night from the pain. Nothing helped, but I was stupid and keep taking the accutane. (The first round of accutane I had taken four years prior and I was in more pain than usual, but nothing like this.)
After I stopped the accutane, the level of pain subsided some, but it was still much greater than it had been before I had begun the treatment. It was then that I decided that I better go to a rheumatologist.
The accutane definetely, without a doubt, accelerated my AS. It is a lot worse today because of it, and I do believe that this has happened to other people. Probably even to people with different kinds of arthritis or immune diseases. I think that it should be on the warning label that it can worsen AS or other diseases. It is certainly something that should be looked into. I'm not sure that it actually can trigger the start of a disease though...I think it is more likely that it helps to accelerate a disease process that is already in place.
As far as the HLA-B27 gene, I am negative. The acne could be related to the AS, but not through that gene. Well, we all know that there are many, many genes involved in this disease...they just haven't pinpointed them yet.
At any rate, I don't think that the drug should be pulled off of the market. I just think people should be warned. We all make our own decisions about our medical care. No one forced me to take those pills. Accutane is dangerous, but so are many drugs. It takes many, many years to really know what a drug is capable of. No drug can have only one effect. I am on Enbrel. Who knows what it'll do to me! I'll take my chances though because it helps me live a normal life. Accutane helps people whose faces are severely disfigured to live a normal life too.
Let us know any research you discover about other people with AS who have taken accutane as well!
Good Luck!
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