Firstly, I'd like to say how amazing this forum is, it steadily improves my outlook on life everytime I read it. I have adult on-set acne and on HIV medications, Ziagen (600mg), 3TC(300mg), Atazanivir(300mg) with a Ritonivir booster (100mg) taken once a day in the morning with a meal. I know that Acutane is really effective at controlling acne. Do you think the drug interactions would adversely effect my health? Many thanks and salutions to your efforts... sincerely; Pizza Face

Accutane is not listed as a drug which is absolutely contraindicated with protease inhibitors. That said, PIs and ritonavir in particular, will interact with the same metabolic liver enzymes as accutane. One would generally think that accutane levels would go up with ritonavir co-administration, but I could not find conclusive evidence of this, and in fact the opposite was reported (only one patient) with indinavir, where the plasma levels went down. We also don't know whether plasma levels alone would be reflective of accutane toxicity. Caution is urged when taking both PIs and accutane together.