Roaccutane and Ulcerative Colitis

Hey guys,

Been a while for me, fortunately I've been well for the last 6 months or so. Been on 125mg/day of Azathioprine and 1200mg(I think... it's 4 tablets a day) of mezalasine (Mezavant XL here in the UK) and thats been doing me fine.

A week ago I went to the doctors and finally after years of endless failed attempts at getting rid of my acne I went onto Roaccutane. I was pretty excited and hopeful for the results as my mum managed to completely cure her acne after being on roaccutane. But almost immediately my stomach started acting up.. more gas, more bleeding and more diarrhoea and abdominal pain. I think the average I'm going to the bathroom is about three times a day. The doctor indicated there was no known problems with taking roaccutane and azathioprine. Has anyone else had experience with UC and roaccutane? The only information I've managed to find online is people saying that roaccutane caused their UC, which isn't the case for me, I was diagnosed 16 months ago, but I wonder if my poor digestive tract can't handle it.

I know accutane can be a trigger for UC - since you already have UC, I am somewhat surprised that it would be prescribed to you, but i guess when you have bad acne, you can get pretty desperate to find something that works... Trust me, I know. I have battled acne for my entire life, now I have some adult acne - but I've been managing it pretty well. There are less drastic ways to manage it, such as hormones or topicals (never helped my case sadly), antibiotics (also bad for UC). I don't know much about people with UC taking accutane, or what to expect so far as combining it with UC drugs, sorry. I can imagine that it's not the best thing for people with UC and I am not surprised it is causing symptoms. Hopefully you get off of it, your acne is gone forever, and the symptoms go away. Have you asked your GI? let us know what you find out. Interesting topic.

It was the GP who prescribed it - not my normal GP but I was referred to the doctor who is able to prescribe roaccutane. Admittedly I don't really trust the GP's knowledge of UC, they've wrongly prescribed iron supplements to me before which aggravated my symptoms and didn't know the dosage of mesalazine I should've been on. All she did this time was check that roaccutane and azathioprine don't have any bad interactions, which according to the system they didn't.

I'm pretty sure it is the accutane causing my stomach problems, however I've started taking Predsol enemas again to help out and now it's much better again. I know it's tempting fate, but I am desperate to get rid of my acne - if I can keep this up for the 4 months I'm meant to be on roaccutane, I'd just be so thrilled. As a teen I tried all sorts to get rid of my acne - antibiotics, the contraceptive pill, different creams, I tried going dairy-free to see if it was lactose. Nothing really worked.

Twice I used accutane. Once in the 80's. Once in the 2000's. Both times I went into a HORRIBLE flare for years.It took years of heavy doody meds to get me better. I would advise anyone to run from that crap as fast as you can.
P.S. From what I have heard, If I was a woman I would NEVER use it unless I was sure I was not planning children.

"You're playing with fire if you continue. It was irresponsible of your doc to prescribe it in the first place."