Posted by Andy123 on July 4, 2001, at 1:05:47
In reply to Accutane causing severe depression, posted by adamie on July 3, 2001, at 21:10:27
> With accutane one is supossed to avoid all suppliments which contain vitamin A but silly me thought >it was alright at this time.
Yeah, don't do that.
>Paxil. Around this time I also got a suppliment called sam-e used to treat all types of depression.
I'd be careful with the sam-e. I actually tried the same exact thing not too long after stopping acutane, and I felt very hot and felt like crap.
> But what I am most interested about is other people's experiences with accutane. Or perhaps some >of you know someone who's had to deal with a similar experience to mine. Do I have a realistic >chance of making a full recovery? I've been off the accutane for 1 month. The depression has been >extremely severe. But it can still completely go away? Please reply. Thanks for reading
I had depression before ever taking accutane, but it did make it worse. Accutane seemed to add this particular quality to my psychiatric illness that wasn't there previously. Here is what I recommend: carefully avoid all vitamin A (do this for a long long time,) drink plenty of water, consider an EPA supplement like fish oil (don't buy cheap fish oil as it is often contaminated with heavy metals,) and get plenty of exercise. If your depression has a particular "malaise" component (seemed that's what accutane gave me as a side effect) then I'd really recommend limiting your caloric intake. If you can do that and still exercise, then you will probably improve.
As to whether or not the effects of accutane will remit, I can't address this. My lifestyle changed alot around that time; I quit racing bicycles and had to be sendentary more because of academic demands. That was clearly adding to my illness but i've made it through okay. Good luck. You have plenty of empathy here.
poster:Andy123
thread:68893
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010701/msgs/68910.html