Like antibiotics, it _might_ help slightly to significantly at first, but is only a bandaid treatment.

Some statistics on it treating HS, although on a pretty small scale.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/9922015/

I was on it two different times many years ago. Once for acne as a teenager and once for HS. In both cases, it did nothing positive. In the case of acne, it actually became much worse. I don't remember the side effects.

Thank you very much for the info... I've looked in to the drug and it's not a rather nice chemical. And if it works as little as proven so far, why put myself through that? I was hoping for maybe one positive comment on it, I guess we will see.

Thank you for the response!

Acutane is more for regular acne right? This disease isn't the same as that. It's not really a bacterial thing, it's an inflammation or immune disorder...

Maybe think about another opinion? I can't say for sure but I don't think Acutane will work for this...

Accutane may help dry out the current lesions, but as previously stated HS is not an acne disease even though the lesions somewhat resemble acne in the early stages.

If you haven't done so already, buy and read the book the hidden plague and try the elimination diet to see if you have a food trigger. You can also try a modified version by just eliminating 1 food group at a time for 2 weeks each and see if any change. Your body is responding to some trigger that is telling your body that it's an infection when the reality is there's no infection. That's where the autoimmune component comes in. Find your trigger and you control the disease. Read food labels religiously while doing elimination diet- did you know tobacco is a nightshade and that there is gluten in McDonalds fries?

Try vinegar baths during outbreaks- add 1 cup white vinegar to tub of warm bath water and soak affected areas for 30+ minutes. Add more vinegar for larger tubs. The vinegar helps dry things out and kills germs while the warm water helps soothe the area.

I know home remedies and diet dont sound like they could possibly be helpful with this. I'm in health care and it took me a very long (and pain filled) time to accept that the medical community does not have answers for HS yet. In the end, what can it hurt to try eliminating common triggers from your diet, reading a book and taking a vinegar bath?

Wishing you luck!

Personally I miss having a perscription for doxycycline. My doctor might have accomplished more with it than I realized according to several things I've read lately.

Being that I think Accutane is a retinoid and a synthetic Vit A, I wonder if anyone has even checked for Vit A deficiency in HS after all the retinoids that have been pitched at us?

lula73, I really wish I knew if tobacco counted as a nightshade given the way it's usually ingested.

Chronic99. I don't think it matters how the nightshade gets in your system just that it does. Think about peanut allergies...allergic reactions are autoimmune reactions. Just a whiff of peanut smell and/or kissing someone who had peanut containing food hours before can trigger an allergic/autoimmune reaction. So inhalation of peanut can cause a reaction. It makes sense then that inhaling tobacco would too.