Acne Magazine

I received the following question from a new reader about Vicodin - she too experienced breakouts while on the popular strong pain reliever prescribed for oral surgeries and several other types of serious pain, and had this question about it’s effects on the skin. 

You posted this comment on AcneMagazine.com, and I’ve responded.  thanks! 

Question :

I am so glad I found this site. I just had two of my wisdom teeth out and was prescribed antibiotics and vicodin. As Tonya mentioned, I am having acne breakouts that I never had in my life…worse than when I was a teenager. I have been trying to figure out if the break-outs were from the antibiotics or the vicodin. Hearing from other experiences makes me feel better. I have stopped use of vicodin for a couple days now and I think the break outs were delayed reaction. How soon did your skin clear up after? Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!

Hi there!  Thanks for reading this blog, we always love aquiring new readers who can share experiences!  Yeah, with the Vicodin, it was a delayed response for me.  I noticed my skin flare up big time about 2-3 days after I started taking it, and since I always correlate anything that speeds up my heart rate with breaking out, I knew that it had to be the Vicodin that was breaking me out. 

I’m not exactly sure if Vicodin causes hormonal changes, but I wouldn’t doubt it since many stimulants and downers have been known to interfere with hormonal balance and trigger changes in the hormones testosterone and estrogen, which is pretty much trouble for acne sufferers. 

I discontinued the use of Vicodin (weening off, of course, you never want to quit this kind of stuff cold turkey), and noticed that my skin cleared up about 4 days later.  It must have just been a matter of getting it all out of my system, but my skin did pretty much return to normal after that.  I’m not sure how this can be avoided if you’re on this class  of pain relievers, and that thing that stinks is that certain surgeries require stronger pain meds, and many over the counter ones that won’t touch that pain, like Tylenol, of course don’t cause the same skin flare up issues as the serious narcotic pain relievers like Vicodin. 

I hope this helps a bit.  Rest assured, the damage isn’t permanent and your skin will return to normal.  Just try not to pick at them so you won’t get any scarring leftovers.