Accutane's Bad Rap

So last night, as I'm climbing into bed, I hear a teaser for the 11pm news:

"Accutane linked to suicide. Tune in at 11 for details..."

So guess what I was doing at 11.

It's been 3 1/2 months since Dillon began his Accutane regimen and each month, the doctor has made it unquestionably clear that we need to keep an eye on Dillon's mood, as depression is one of the two serious side effects (Birth-defects being the other. But that's not an issue here.). Each month, after we have had a pre-appointment for bloodwork, we meet with the doctor and he sits down and looks us each in the eye:

"Do you have feelings of hurting yourself or others?"

"No."

"Mom? Does he seem normal?"

"Yes."

"Mackenzie? (If she's with us.) Does Dillon seem different?"

"No."

And then he enters Dillon's information into a special computer database that tracks Accutane users, called iPledge. When we started this in November, he informed me that there were some people who believed there was a correlation between Accutane and suicide. As far as the FDA is concerned, they are "still assessing reports of suicide or suicide attempts".

I watched the news report, but came away from it feeling like I missed something. There was no new evidence... they interviewed parents of 2 boys who had committed suicide while on Accutane, both several years ago. I couldn't understand why they even wasted their time putting together that story so this morning, I got online at News 9. The story didn't even make it to their online edition.

Still unsatisfied (I wanted to know if there was actually new evidence), I Googled "accutane suicide". Most hits are law firms wanting to represent me if my son kills himself. It takes hours to wade through the junk to find factual evidence and even then, most of the evidence is anecdotal. This senator's son got a lot of press, simply because he's a senators son. But the fact that his son was "happy" and then took Accutane and then committed suicide is not empirical evidence. He asked for more information for patients and I agree that is a good thing. But to present his case as proof that Accutane causes suicide is simply not true. The news report stated that two-hundred and some (I forget the actual number) of teens on Accutane have committed suicide. And that over 13 million (again, a guesstimate) teens have taken Accutane. Now. Its been a LONG time since I Aced statistics at Purdue, but I'm just guessing that the incidence of suicide among teens on Accutane is less than that in the general teen population. Also, isn't it probably a fact that the kids with the most severe acne might have a greater incidence of depression than those kids who haven't been humiliated and scorned by their peers while the medical profession spent years crossing every other therapy off their list before finally prescribing Accutane?

So I looked it up. I was right:

According to Wikipedia: Several studies have emerged suggesting a possible link between isotretinoin and depression. It must however be acknowledged that its primary use is for the treatment of the most severe acne. The possibility that this severe acne is causing the depression is therefore not to be ruled out. Moreover, improvement of a patient's acne by successful treatment with isotretinoin can actually reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. Statistical evidence shows that the suicide rate among Accutane users is actually lower than average.

My point is not to deny that there may be a link between Accutane and suicide, but to stress that it does no one any good to sensationalize the situation. An infinitely more helpful news story would have been to educate adults with facts and refer them to sources for further information on this serious, perhaps deadly, issue.

(PS - Here's how it all turned out.)