Crohn's Disease Casued by Acne Drug Accutane

Accutane Side Effects - Crohn’s Disease

For more than a decade, millions of people trusted a medication known as Accutane to help them fight their acute cases of acne. While many forms of acne are relatively minor, others are severe and require an aggressive treatment protocol to help minimize the pain and discomfort felt by patients. In addition, severe cases of acne can leave behind scarring that can tangibly affect a person’s quality of life. Therefore, when Roche AG introduced Accutane to the market upon its approval by the FDA in 1982, it soon began to dominate this market.

Unfortunately, a growing number of reports of dangerous Accutane side effects eventually began to surface, and one of the most prevalent Accutane side effects is known as Crohn’s disease. Below you’ll find an overview of this troubling Accutane side effect, including an overall description, the symptoms of Crohn’s disease, the treatment that can be required to fight it, the potential long-term effects of Crohn’s disease and finally how you should proceed if you need the help of an Accutane side effects lawyer.

A Brief Overview of Crohn’s Disease

Crohn’s disease is a disorder that can carry on indefinitely. The disease attacks the gastrointestinal tract, otherwise known as the GI tract, and it tends to focus its attack on the lower portion of the small intestine. Crohn’s disease causes an inflammation of the area it attacks, which means that the intestinal areas that are affected tend to swell and to become red in color and extremely sensitive. This inflammation leads to chronic pain and discomfort for the patient.

As a result of this painful inflammation, a patient with Crohn’s disease tends to experience random and periodic emptying of the bowels, and these emptying episodes can occur as often as every several minutes. The emptying of the bowels from a person with Crohn’s disease also appears in the form of diarrhea.

Symptoms of Crohn’s Disease

The symptoms of Crohn’s disease are somewhat varied, but nearly all of them relate to the abdominal region in some manner. Examples of common Crohn’s disease symptoms include:

• Abdominal pain
• Constant diarrhea
• Rectal bleeding
• Weight loss
• Loss of appetite
• Fever
• Skin problems
• Arthritis
• Anemia

Anemia stems from the loss of blood that’s common with Crohn’s disease patients, as the intestinal inflammation can lead to the discharge of blood in the stool as a result of the swelling and the body’s attempt to fight the condition.

The Treatment of Crohn’s Disease

The treatment of Crohn’s disease will largely depend on the level of progression the disease has made. However, if one were to view the treatment of Crohn’s disease in a hypothetically chronological order, it would usually begin with a series of prescriptions of antibiotic medication, ranging at first from relatively mild medication to strong medication that attacks the condition aggressively. Medications can also include anti-inflammatory prescriptions, steroids and anti-diarrhea fluid replacements.

If these medications do not make a positive impact, additional steps are required. These steps could include surgery. According to several bodies of statistics, as many as 60% - 75% of Crohn’s disease patients ultimately require this step at some point. These surgical procedures can include treatment of the inflamed area in an attempt to alleviate the painful symptoms or even the removal of the portion of the intestine that has been harmed by this disease.

However, surgical procedures are not a panacea for this condition. Crohn’s disease has been known to attack different parts of the intestine at different times, and the areas that they attack are not necessarily contiguous. Put simply, Crohn’s disease can attack up and down the GI tract in different locations in such a way that surgery is not a practical solution.

Potential Long-Term Effects of Crohn’s Disease

In addition to the pain, discomfort, potential embarrassment and the real medical risk in which patients who have Crohn’s disease are placed, there are also potential long-term effects of Crohn’s disease that present their own kinds of danger and risk. One of the most common long-term implications of contracting this disease is intestinal blockage that’s a result of the inflamed intestine swelling shut. Correcting this problem can require invasive surgery.

Aside from the blockage issue, Crohn’s disease patients can also experience nutritional problems and vitamin and protein deficiencies that are a result of a failure of the body to properly absorb these substances or because the body flushes them out in an effort to fight the inflammation that exists within the intestines.

How an Accutane Side Effects Lawyer Can Help

As can be seen, the potential problems associated with the taking of Accutane far outweigh the potential benefits. That could be one of the reasons that Roche AG pulled Accutane from the market in 2009. Another purported reason is the nearly $100 million the company paid out in settlements and verdicts to people who have suffered from Accutane side effects. If this includes you, seek the help of an Accutane side effects lawyer immediately by scheduling a free initial consultation.