Accutane: What You Should Know

Last Updated on November 20th, 2021

You’ve probably heard about Accutane (also known as isotretinoin or 13-cis-retinoic acid) as a miracle drug for cystic acne. However, if you’re considering taking Accutane for acne, the benefits of the medication come at the cost of side effects. But do smaller doses come with benefits? Let’s take a look.

Before starting Accutane, it’s important to try a a gentle acne treatment regimen every single day. We think simpler is better, which is why we recommend the three-step Exposed Skin Care routine. Their Basic Kit starts off with just what you need to clear your acne in 30 days (or you get your money back—seriously!).

Side Effects of Accutane For Acne

We never recommend Accutane as the first step in treating acne because of the side effects. Just a few of the potential side effects of Accutane include:

• Dry skin and peeling skin. Accutane breaks down the “glue” that holds skin cells together over cysts and blemishes. The peeling of skin opens a cyst without lancing, but it also can cause itchy and raw skin all over the body. It can cause nosebleeds in both sexes and vaginitis in women. About 40% of Accutane users experience dry or peeling skin.

• Irritation at the corners of the mouth. About 90% of Accutane users experience irritation at the corners of the mouth.

• Closing of bone ends. When the ends of bones close, growing stops. Bones in the upper body stop growing at about age 18, but bones in the lower body may continue growing until age 22.

• Rosacea. Changes in the “basement material” surrounding capillaries in the skin can cause rosacea outbreaks in people who have never had rosacea before.

• Many more side effects. Accutane has also been known to cause hair loss, elevated liver enzymes, back pain, high blood sugar levels, permanent thinning of the skin, easy bruising, formation of calcified cysts in the muscles, high blood pressure, cataracts, and erectile dysfunction.

Some of these side effects may become permanent. There is a well-known increased risk of suicide among users of Accutane for acne, and about 10% of women who use Accutane during the first trimester of pregnancy bear children with facial birth defects.

With a list of side effects like this, taking Accutane for acne seems daunting. Using lower doses of Accutane, many researchers have reasoned, ought to reduce the risk of side effects. But would lower doses of Accutane control acne as well?

Lowering The Dose Of Accutane For Acne

Accutane comes in 10 mg (pink), 20 mg (red), and 40 mg (yellow) pills. American doctors, in particular, tend to prescribe the 40 mg dosage. American acne sufferers have to pay out of pocket for their medications, and the various sizes of the drug cost about the same. Many expect to get their money’s worth by taking the highest available dose of the medication.

Many of the dosing recommendations that appear in English-language medical journals include studies of patients who were not being treated for acne. Accutane is also used as a treatment for certain kinds of cancer. Cancer treatment requires much higher doses of the drug, but these dosages were included in the recommendations recorded in the medical literature for dosing Accutane for acne. It is possible that decades-old dosage recommendations are simply too high, but have become standard medical procedure in the USA.

In Italy, there is no incentive to prescribe a higher dosage of the drug. Researchers in Italy conducted a clinical study to see if dosage really makes a difference.

In the Italian study, 114 people with “mild” acne and 36 people with “moderate” acne were given about 75% of the dosage usually prescribed, 30 mg a day (one pink pill and one red pill). Essentially all of the patients in the group studied by the researchers went into remission from acne during the study. Only about 10% relapsed after they were taken off medication after taking the lower dose of the drug.

These results are consistent with the results of a study of the 30 mg daily dosage conducted in Germany in the 1990s. German researchers found that about 1/3 of patients given 30 mg of Accutane a day instead of 40 mg of Accutane a day needed a second course of treatment, on average a little under 8 months after they first came off the drug. The German doctors only had one person who failed to respond at all to taking just 30 mg of Accutane a day.

In another study, Korean researchers studied 60 people who had “moderate” acne. They were given either a regular dosage of Accutane, a low dose, or intermittent Accutane treatment, taking Accutane only one week per month. In the regular dosage group, 12% relapsed when they were taken off the drug. In the low-dose group, 18% relapsed after being taken off the drug. In the one-week-a-month group, however, 50% had their acne come back when they stopped taking Accutane. Taking Accutane once a week was apparently enough to control acne but not enough to cure it.

It seems that lower (30 mg) doses of Accutane are about as likely to cure acne as higher (40 mg) doses of Accutane if they are taken regularly. Taking a vacation from Accutane treatment for 3 weeks out of the month results in relapses soon after the drug is discontinued.

The reality is, however, that many people take Accutane for acne on an intermittent or occasional schedule even though their doctors tell them to take it every day. Some people don’t take all the Accutane they are prescribed because they cannot afford it. Some people don’t take all the Accutane they are prescribed because they find side effects to be intolerable. And some people don’t take all the Accutane they are prescribed because the simply forget to take their pills.

Should You Ask Your Doctor About Low-Dose Accutane?

Many doctors are sold on Accutane for acne. It’s the only oral medication for acne that both opens the skin and shrinks the oil glands that become inflamed at the base of pores. It shrinks cysts as it opens the skin above them, and it treats blackheads and whiteheads by peeling skin that covers them, too. Some studies suggest that Accutane is also anti-inflammatory and antibacterial if it is taken in the right dose.

Probably the best time to ask your doctor about taking the smallest dose of Accutane for acne is when it is first prescribed. Ask your doctor if he or she thinks that a 10 mg dose might be as effective for you as 20 mg or 40 mg—and why. Be especially sure to ask about lower doses if you have any history of inflammatory bowel disease, as this sometimes life-threatening condition can be aggravated by taking the drug.

We highly recommend only asking about Accutane for acne once you’ve tried other acne routine options. Our #1 pick for an acne-fighting skincare routine is Exposed Skincare.

We recommend Exposed because it works, and we like the company’s philosophy of using low levels of acne-fighting ingredients combined with natural botanicals. This combo helps clear up acne without irritating your skin.

Start with the Basic Kit for a three-step routine that you do twice a day. If you don’t see results, the company will refund you. Check out more before-and-after results with Exposed Skincare here.