Retin And Peripheral Neuropathy
 

First, wonder if anyone's ever posted anything like this before...

Second, would like to report that since coming here - I am soooooo much better. I have my second opinion tomorrow and the first thing I have to tell him is gee - I was in some distress when I made your appointment, but now I am sooooo much better. :D

However, being bipolar, I had to replace one of my antipsychotics, Geodon, with another golden oldie, respirdol, or something like that. Leg cramping did diminish when the switch was made, 20%, worth the switch, but now I feel a little more depressed than I used to.

So, I decide to go see a dermatologist yesterday and try to get prescription Retin A, as menopause have cause excellerated wrinkling - this thought upped my mood and made me feel happy.

First I tried miniscule dab on hand - nothing happened. I put it on last night in half strength, being super careful - and did note an increase in pn symptions, very mild leg cramping, bit more foot tingling. This has happened before with new things and over time, they just stopped bothering me.

I used to have worse reactions with flaxseeds and flaxseed oil and fish oil capsules. Now I can take flaxseed oil with no addition in symptoms and I can take one large fish oil pill with very little noticeable increase in symptoms.

I just wondered if anyone else noticed nay increased in symptoms from pn from trying Retin A.

Yes and no
 

I have noticed an increase in PN in general when trying a lot of new things. Supplements, eyelashes, massage, food, you name it. What I realized is that I actually had anticipatory anxiety and changed my own biochemistry with my anxiety. This was actually the cause for increased PN and not actually true reactions.

In saying that I have indeed had a major increase in very distressing symptoms years ago from taking milk Thistle.

Retin A which was very common at one time, has declined in popularity over the years.

It is not really a simple treatment.
Here is a link with some common side effects:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhe...s#side_effects

Some is absorbed into the body.
And it is related to Accutane which is one of the most toxic drugs on the market today.

This site has FDA Medwatch reports tabulated.
The low numbers reported reflect the unpopularity of this drug today. When it first came out, there were many more people rushing to use it, but that has changed.

http://www.drugcite.com/?q=tretinoin
This list of reports show far more toxicity than other drugs on the market in my opinion. So your question about PN is only a very small part of what might happen. Stay alert, therefore.

Retin A has been found to cause severe birth defects in pregnant women to the fetus. This paper explains now the drug affects neural cell development:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21934132

Drugs typically showing this toxic potential to new cells, can affect adults as well. For example Thalidomide which causes severe defects in developing fetuses, is also neurotoxic to adults. It is used
today to treat multiple myeloma, and also causes a PN in those patients. Adult nervous systems, are always repairing themselves, from free radical and other damages, so drugs like this which suppress dividing cells, could be potentially damaging to adults.
This is why Retin A was modified, to the new Retin A micro product.

I am finding this out exactly - every new thing can have an affect - even every old thing that I've used for years, can now have an effect! :eek:

As usual, a wealth of information Mrs. D and thank you - I have taken a look at your links. I'm also using only 1/4 the directed amount and no redness, swelling or anything like that yet - but was doing so because of pn.

Second application, nothing happened - but I went for my second opinion yesterday - putting a post up - and even that doc if I could be making my situation worse with Retin A - he just smiled like I was a silly toddler asking a silly question and said - No. Course I (now!) realize they all aren't as educated as they think they are. ;)