Accutane Depression, whats working for me

Hello

Short version: I feel Accutane has caused a lasting depression as well as many other problems and a gluten free diet has helped my depression tremendously in a very short period of time. Look at links at the bottom of the page.



Long version:

My accutane experience: Took accutane generic(amnesteen) in 2005 for 6 months, I was 17 at the time. I had never experienced depression or psychiatric problems, I had never experienced problems with sleep either. I believe I started at 20mg and worked my way up to 60/80mg by the end of my course.

My experience on the the drug: I began to have very violent thoughts/urges and also became very moody. I had trouble sleeping at night and would be very tired during the day. Everything became very signifigant to me when I was on the drug.

Post accutane: experienced depression and anxiety, insomnia, short manic episodes(usually only lasting a night and a the next day), jaundice, a condition where back of hands are frequently very red when the weather gets cold(I don't remember the name of this off hand), may have experienced psychosis/schizophrenia; I don't really know where to draw the line between depression/anxiety and these disorders. I've experienced very mininal hair loss and hair thinning however I feel that it is related to the drug because it began when I took the drug and seems similiar to hairloss that other people have experienced while on accutane.

since June of 05 when I began taking the drug I have had trouble with these problems at varying degrees. The toughest part of all of these issues is the depression/anxiety. I have experienced paranoia, loss of motivation and energy, inability to focus, what could probably be coined as social phobias, tremendous sleep problems and mood swings.

My overall experience with medical professionals during this time has been very negative and discouraging. I saw numerous GPs and dermatologists and most of them said that the depression wasn't related to accutane and that I should start medication. This is a very tough spot because I feel that accutane is the biggest reason for my problems. Because of this I have never taken prescription medication for depression or anxiety. I also haven't taken these drugs because I've read posts by a lot of people who have long term accutane side effects that say these drugs do not work for them. In Jan. of 2009 I met with an alternative medicine doctor has also practiced as a psychiatrist. Since then I have taken melatonin for sleep as well as other supplements for depression. I am currently taking none of these supplements. I do a hair stack which includes resveratrol and grape seed among other things. I can't take biotin because my billrubin levels are high; something is wrong with my liver and my doctor reccomends that I don't take Biotin until this issue is resolved. For depression and anxiety I've taken St. John's wort, 5htp, GABA, SAM-E, I've also tried blue light therapy.

I took a VEGA test(this is a Very alt medicine type of test that I believe originated in Germany that is not necessarily respected by United States medical professionals) and it showed that I was allergic to Gluten as well as Dairy amongst a few other things.Sometime in spring my doctor said I should try a Gluten free diet because of the results of the Vega test. I didn't really give this much thought and kind of disregarded it because I thought that it was probably a lot of BS and would not work.

Recently because of a few things that I was reading about depression I decided to try the gluten free diet. This was only three days ago. I felt better the first day of the gluten free diet. I haven't been in many social situations yet where I would have possibly been paranoid so I cannot say that this problem is resolved, however I think that some of that may have been learned behavior that can be changed. I do feel much more confident and comfortable when speaking to strangers, friends, and relatives.

The main point of this thread is this: I've been having psychiatric problems since I began my accutane treatment in June 2005. I'm trying to let as many people that have experienced similiar long term problems see this information so they can try it and see if it works for them. Maybe some people will flame this as I've spent A LOT of time reading accutane survivors boards/accutane side effects boards and I know the kind of outlook that is often present. I've felt very bad at times myself and been hopeless and felt that nothing could resolve these problems. I am aware of the things that a poster named Max has said circa 2005 about gene expression and I think that the amount of effort and thought he put into what hes done is incredible. With that being said, I am trying to maintain a postive attitude and learn everything I can about this because I still believe that the effects can be slowed, stopped, or even reversed.

more about the diet:
My doctor has put me on a diet that is gluten free, dairy free, and does not have high amounts of sugar. He said not to eat any fruit or drink any pop. I think the key here is being gluten free, and being dairy free can also help. Like I said I have other issues (high billrubin, high metals in blood, who knows if these problems are related to the accutane or not) and these may have been the reason he put me on a low sugar diet, IDK. These articles mention how being gluten free is related to depression and also say that removing dairy can sometimes be helpful for psychological problems if you are trying a gluten free diet. They say that it is possible that gluten free as well as gluten free and dairy free diets can treat depression and possibly schizophrenia. Note that accutane unquestionably causes crohn's disease and irritable bowel syndrome; these are the cases that Roche is losing when they are sued. There is a loose link here between being gluten free and these disorders. I believe there is a chance that the body's whole digestive and waste process is affected by accutane. Celiac disease is the name for being allergic to gluten. From what I've read I think that some people have Celiac disease and must avoid gluten, and some people have allergic reactions to gluten that aren't as severe. This is all very new to me so if some of this info isn't correct let me know.

hope this helps some people

http://www.squidoo.com/glutenanddepression

http://depression.about.com/cs/diet/a/foodallergies.htm


best site for learning about gluten free food and celiac disease
http://www.celiac.com/

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