Welcome to this forum John!
I am guessing that when you were given accutane by your doctor, he didn't even mention hair loss! It seems particularly regrettable to swap a temporary problem for a permanent one!
I suppose I feel a lot of drugs are prescribed like that. I was caught by the side effects of statins, and I was amazed that what were described as 'muscle pains' on the leaflet that came with the tablets, turned out to be really unpleasant cramping that made it nearly impossible to exercise, and just generally made life miserable. The effects in me were temporary, but you don't have to look far on the internet to discover that some people never recover properly - just as, it would seem, not everyone regrows lost hair after they stop taking accutane! The medical profession is particularly reluctant to admit permanent effects.
David