Any teenager will tell you that acne can drive you crazy, but is it dismal enough to drive you to kill yourself? Since its market debut in 1982, enraged parents and lawyers have implicated Accutane in
hospitalizations and suicide deaths of over 200 teenagers in US. Accutane (isotretinoin) is one of Hoffman-LaRoche’s most popular and controversial pharmaceuticals. Doctors prescribe Accutane for patients with severe nodular acne that does not respond to systemic treatments with antibiotics.
Michigan Democrat Representative Bart Stupak lost his son, BJ, to suicide in May of 2000 while teenager was using Accutane. Since then, Congressman Stupak has led a crusade for further research to establish Accutane's risks of birth defects and psychiatric disorders like depression and suicide.
While safety of isotretinoin is hotly contested, there are previous Accutane users such as 21 year-old Krista Savino who view drug as a Godsend. The antithesis of Congressman Stupak, Savino vows to do whatever she can to keep Accutane on market. Savino sometimes experiences acne so severe that she deems her condition “social equivalent of suicide”. Accutane gives her clear skin and confidence to leave her home without feeling overly self-conscious.
Hoffman-LaRoche, following FDA guidelines, lists depression as a possible Accutane side-effect. Notwithstanding, link between isotretinoin and development of depression and/or suicide remains marred.
Like Senator Stupak, Dublin accountant Liam Grant, blames Roaccutane for suicide death of his 20 year-old son, also named Liam. Grant alleges that his son exhibited signs of severe depression after taking Roaccutane in months prior to his death.
According British newspaper, The Sunday Times, Grant has spent almost £500,000 on independent research to try to prove that Roaccutane causes depression. Grant hired Douglas Bremner, MD of Emory University School of Medicine to conduct investigation. Grant hopes to use this research to force Roche Pharmaceuticals to admit liability for Liam’s death.
Dr. Bremner’s results, which were published in American Journal of Psychiatry, have made strides in identifying Accutane’s influence on brain. Dr. Bremner explains that to invoke depression, isotretinoin must affect brain.
Dr. Bremner’s Roaccutane study involved 28 healthy men and women between ages of 18 and 50. During investigation, brain function of subjects was measured using positron emission tomography (PET) before and after four months of treatment with isotretinoin. Isotretinoin treatment was associated with decreased brain metabolism in orbitofrontal cortex- area of brain known to mediate symptoms of depression. Yet, there were no differences in severity of depressive symptoms between isotretinoin and antibiotic treatment groups before or after treatment. The study concluded that isotretinoin treatment is associated with changes in brain function.
