Dry Eye from Accutane

[untkicker29]

I am new to this site. I took Accutane for a month and a half before getting off of it because I did not want the side effects to continue. It wasnt worth it. But even after having been off the drug for almost almost 5 months now, I still have dry eyes!! It has been so frustrating, and being only 20 years old I cannot imagine having to live with this condition forever.

I have seen several eye doctors with 3 out of 4 saying the same thing. That I am just not prodcing enough tears. The tear quality is fine, but my tear quantity is below par. I recently had a Schrimer's test done and was an 8 in my left eye, and a 5 in my right eye. I also had the test where they put dye in your eye, and the doctor told me that my cornea surface is fine, which I am very thankful of.

The last doctor told me that there is still hope to get my eyes back to normal mainly because I am a young healthy male, and I hope that this is the case. However, as time is passing by, I am beginning to wonder if I will indeed get back to normal!!

My current regiment is Restasis twice a day, systane when needed throughout the day, and therelife eye supplement. I dont know if the eye supplement is doing anything, so I am going to give flaxseed oil and fish oil a try.

Has anyone ever heard of it taking this long for dry eyes to clear from Accutane? Anyone have any luck with flaxseed or fish oil? Any advice or insight would be great.

Thanks.

[Amy09]

I am eighteen with bad dry eye and completely understand how you feel about having dry eye at your age. I actually had a friend who took accutane a year ago and developed pink eye for a couple weeks. My dry eye wasn't caused by accutane, the doctors actually aren't 100% sure what has caused it for me, but one possiblity might be the use of erythromycin (also for my skin), which I used about four years ago and developed an immunity to.

Restasis will eventually help you a little bit in increasing your tear production. I've used Systane before and have also found Refresh Tears to help a lot. As far as the flaxseed oil supplements go, I actually found that Cod Liver Oil helped me the best. It comes in a liquid form instead of pill form. You mix a tablespoon of it in with a small glass of water. It looks like vegetable oil, but the kind i use is tasteless it smells like oranges, and its definately not as bad as it may sound. Anyways, you might want to look into it. Also, a damp, warm washcloth on your eyes (I do this in the morning) can really help with dry eye pain. I hope the tips help and good luck to you.