Brian. My son had severe acne and we tried everything incuding those miracle cures on tv like proactin or whatever. Nothing worked.

My son had severe acne and we tried everything incuding those miracle cures on tv like proactin or whatever. Nothing worked. We used accutane as a last resort and with great reluctance. It worked. Yes, there were some side effects. Nosebleeds, sore joints, vision issues at night on occassion and of course chapped lips like you would not believe.
When my son had acne he was teased at school to a point he did not want to go anymore. When he got chapped lips kids would ask him why.
The thing to understand is that it does not follow a course you would expect. Typically you think that on day one you have severe acne and as you take it it gets less and less. We noticed after a month he would get outbreaks and we wondered if it was working. The dermitologist said to wait. It went away a bit and came back and in month 5 it came back. We were seriously wondering at that point if we had made a mistake. He had it back a little bit, sore knees, nosebleeds and those chapped lips.
AFter 6 months it was gone = all of it. Within 3 days after he was done his lips cleared up as did his nose bleeds. He had sore knees for about another 2 weeks and then he was fine.
It has been a year and a half and right now all his friends are breaking and his skin is clear.
TO this day my son says its worth it.