Roaccutane (Accutane) and diabetes

Timpie · #1 (**permalink**) 10-15-2007, 05:07 AM

Hi,

About a year ago, at the age of 25, I was diagnosed to be a diabetic type 1. Recently I have come to believe that pills (that i took for six months when I was 19) might be the cause of my diabetes. Roaccutane (also known as Accutane) is a very potent drug that works very well against acne but also has a long list of side effects, one more severe than the other.

Are there more people out there with similar stories or does anyone know if there have been studies about a possible link between Roaccutane and diabetes.

Thx

Stealthman80 · #2 (**permalink**) 10-24-2007, 03:09 PM

I took accutane twice but I've been diabetic for 15 years. There is no way that would cause it. It is completly unrelated

mariusnabal · #3 (**permalink**) 05-14-2008, 07:33 AM

Timpie and others,

I am a diabetic Type 1 too - diagnosed when I was 23/4 - 36 now.

Like you, I took Roaccutane when I was younger - I was around 18 or so. At first I didn't link the two, but then almost exactly a year after I was diagnosed my sister befell the same thing! She became diabetic as well and she took Roaccutane about a year after me.

Then it hit me that the may be linked. I would love to be able to prove it and get Roche to compensate me for this. Diabetes type 1 is a tough thing to live with for me.

I think the drug itself is dangerous, but doesn't necessarily cause diabetes. However, in some cases like ours, I think the power of the drug and our circumstances at the time may have conspired to give us diabetes.

If I had known the drug had such potential outcomes I would certainly not have taken it. I was told that one's liver is put under stress, but as long as the blood tests results are good, it is safe to take... alas!

I've just registered with this forum and set up my account to receive mails from other members - so please let me know if there are any other people who had sudden health problems a few years after taking this drug.

Best wishes to us all.

Marius

Keywords: ROCHE, Roaccutane, Accutane, Roacutan

Janlaton · #4 (**permalink**) 05-14-2008, 07:58 AM

Diabetes is a genetic problem folks. THe drug may have precepitated how soon you were diagnosed but you would have been diagnosed so time if you had lived long enough.

It would be nice to be able to have someone pick up some of the tab for the cost. Umm does that company mfg any diabetic supplies you could get them to furnish for you.

Any way, Welcome to the Forum. Hope you meet many good friends and find lots of helpful information here!

mariusnabal · #5 (**permalink**) 05-14-2008, 08:36 AM

Hi Jan,

Thanks for the welcome!

You may be right, but not in my immediate family... (2-3 generations).

I do believe that this outcome is perhaps rare and depends on certain conditions or predispositions as you say, but I also feel that if I had not taken this drug I would not be type 1 diabetic now and nor would my sister... or Timpie or several others.....

Have a look at these:
Links to other forums need prior approval.
and here is a case that went to court, it's in spanish but it seems they succeeded in their action in 2004... it's in spanish but you can get it translated.
Artculo-(diabetes a diario)

I notice that you are a type 2 diabetic.. it may interest you to investigate going onto a raw diet. A friend of mine was diagnosed as type 2 recently and since going raw he does not need to take any medication.

Best wishes

Marius

sprzepiora · #6 (**permalink**) 05-14-2008, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janlaton

Diabetes is a genetic problem folks.

Not completely genetic a good friend of mine had a kidney transplant and the meds he takes for that caused diabetes.

I myself am a T1 diagnosed at 35 years old and told it was probably caused by a virus I had recently. Although the debate is out on whether it was caused by the flu like illness that swpet through my house last Christmas, or the shingles I got at the beginning of the year.

Keezheekoni · #7 (**permalink**) 05-14-2008, 09:30 AM

I never blamed my getting diabetes on anything...nor do I plan to start. However, I did take Accutane when I was 15/16 and got diabetes when I was 16. Interesting coincidence, maybe.

I figure that if all I have is diabetes, I'm lucky. There are many others who are *way* worse off than I.

BrianSCohen · #8 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 11:14 AM

This really pisses me off. My friend just had his daughter diagnosed type 1. I believe it was caused by accutane. Yes, it is admitted that accutane can result in type 1 diabetes as a complication. Do Drs. warn their patients appropriately? No. Do they even consider that some patients are at increased risk? No.

After a drug is approved there is very little responsible questioning of these sorts of side effects. It is a very sad day when the medical establishment prescribes accutane to teens to control acne full well knowing that it will leave a significant number of patients with Type 1 diabetes.

mariusnabal · #9 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 01:24 PM

Brian: I share your frustration and disbelief. Maybe you can ask your friend to join this discussion. I would love to put some pressure on Roche.
I see you are type 2. As I mentioned in a previous post - you may be able to reverse it. Have you considered going completely raw for a while? It is truly remarkable what it's done for a friend - he stopped taking medication soon after he stopped eating processed food. You may be aware that type 2 may be caused by our "modern" life style and our predeliction for processed food, rich in trans fats.
Nevertheless, my beef in this thread is with Roche and having to inject 4-6 times a day for the rest of my (now shortened) life ... and how Roaccutane/Accutane is *still* being prescribed when they don't fully understand it's interactions and its short and long-term consequences. Or perhaps they know, but as long as it keeps making them the good money it does and as long as the patients sign the disclaimers to keep them covered, as they are now required to do I believe, they simply don't care! Yes.... I'm peeved. Yes... I would like to know the truth ... and yes... I would like to support an action against them.

Keezheekoni: I am sorry to hear about your diabetes and I think you are being very brave and positive and for that I commend you. However, I cannot fully agree with your stance - if I had known that this drug was so dangerous I would *not* have taken it and I dare say that you would probably have considered yourself *even luckier* if you didn't have type 1 diabetes over the coming years. That is the point. I think all the other "Roche Type 1's" would take offence at your complacency. It's not about luck. Its about pharmaceutical companies getting things approved when perhaps they shouldn't have and in some cases taking people for a ride they could really do without.

princesslinda · #10 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mariusnabal

I see you are type 2. As I mentioned in a previous post - you may be able to reverse it. Have you considered going completely raw for a while? It is truly remarkable what it's done for a friend - he stopped taking medication soon after he stopped eating processed food.

A type 2 who is able to stop taking medications is very fortunate, but the diabetes hasn't been reversed. That person is simply now a "diet controlled T2 diabetic" as opposed to a T2 diabetic on meds.

If it were truly reversed, that person would be able to eat as a non-diabetic, without having abnormally high blood sugar elevations, as their body woul utilize insulin properly.

mariusnabal · #11 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 01:51 PM

Of course Princess Linda you are correct. Please revise my entry if you can and replace "reverse it" with "cease taking medication".

Tattoo azz · #12 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 05:39 PM

I was never unlucky enough to have acne so was never prescribed the drugs, but i have to say on balance that there may be a link between said drugs and diabetes, but also that 'D' is also genetic but, here again i know of no-one in my family that had diabetes before me. I would love to blame the chip shop that gave me food poisoning which in turn according to my Dr was the final straw which led to my t1, but i just think that i was always going to be a t1.

xMenace · #13 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 05:53 PM

None of this so far is evidence.

Teenagers get acne and teenagers get type 1 diabetes. There have to be many coincidences.

"Diabetes doesn't run in my family" is not evidence. It happens.

Tattoo azz · #14 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 06:11 PM

I have to agree xMenace, **** happens

Funnygrl · #15 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 11:43 PM

You don't think you got adequately warned of the side effects? You're kidding- right? Did you perchance open the iPledge booklet at any point? I've never seen a drug that warns about it's side effects better in it's life.

People that think they should sue because a drug has side effects annoys me. You're putting a foreign chemical in your body. Stuff can go wrong. Don't go on a drug for every little thing. Read the side effects and decide if that risk is worth the benefit the drug offers for you. At the same time, don't be paranoid and understand that most side effects are rare.

I personally got a pseudotumor cerebri from a drug I took for acne that lead me to be followed my a neuro-oncologist for 6 months. I wasn't expecting it to happen, but I wasn't shocked that the drug I took had side effects. It's a rare side effect, but I happened to be in a high risk group for it.