Of all the conditions we cover in the e-Alert and your monthly Members Alert newsletter, acne is one we rarely talk about. Let’s face it – most of our members are long past that stage. But this e-Alert will be important to those of you with teenaged children and grandchildren as they may literally be dying of embarrassment.
Accutane has been big news since 15-year-old Charles Bishop flew a plane into a Tampa office building a little more than a week ago. The recent media focus on Accutane has brought this controversial medication into the spotlight.
The truth is, the attention on Accutane is long overdue. This drug, which has been on the market for over 15 years, has been linked with suicide for at least a decade. And for longer than that, with serious, even life-threatening, birth defects.
With a track-record like that, you’d assume this drug offers hope for some life-threatening or severely debilitating illness. Something so horrible that it justified the considerable risk associated with taking it – especially since the majority of people taking it were teenagers. But the only thing it’s designed to treat is acne.
The cure is worse than the disease
Certainly to those who have it, acne can be serious. The type of acne Accutane is designed to treat – severe cystic acne – may be among the most embarrassing conditions of adolescence. And it can leave physical scars on the face that can last a lifetime.
But let’s keep in mind that it’s always hard to be a teenager. Whether it’s acne, being overweight, or not being able to afford the clothes the “in crowd” is wearing, growing up is just hard.
We’ve all been through our own high school challenges. But in today’s instant-gratification society, we think that there must be a quick and easy solution to every problem. Too often, that solution comes in a pill bottle.
You think we’d have learned by now that these “solutions” really don’t solve anything – and in many cases, they can cause even worse problems.
Acne doesn’t kill kids – but Accutane might
In the case of Accutane, the “solution” is MUCH more dangerous than the original problem. Consider this: between 1998 and 2000 – just three short years – Accutane was linked with at least 160 cases of suicide, attempted suicide, suicidal thoughts, and hospitalization. That’s roughly 53 cases a year. And that’s not counting the kids who came before 1998, when they started counting – and those since, like 15-year-old Charles Bishop. As early as 1985, just three years after its FDA approval, reports started coming in about psychiatric side effects of Accutane, like seizures, emotional instability, and depression.
The effects of Accutane-related birth defects are even more far-reaching. Hoffman La-Roche, the company that manufactures Accutane, knew that the drug caused severe birth defects even before the drug hit the market. And in 1990, the FDA concluded that since the drug’s introduction, there had been 11,000 to 13,000 Accutane-related abortions and 900 to 1,100 Accutane-related birth defects.
Over the years, the reports continued to build. The label warnings got longer and longer – even leading to the requirement for signed consent forms. But Accutane’s sales continued to grow; in 1998, it was Roche’s second biggest seller, bringing in $800 million that year alone.
We still don’t know for sure if Charles Bishop was taking Accutane when he flew into that building in Tampa. Police say the toxicology reports should come back this week. But the fact that the prescription is even considered as a valuable piece of evidence tells us something.
Yet Roche still denies the connection. According to a MedScape Health article, Roche has called the suicides “spontaneous,” and suggested that they reflect “the multiple risk factors in the adolescents and young adults afflicted with the disfiguring disease.”
Which scars are worse?
I suppose that Roche thinks that statement defends its position. But to me, it just shines a spotlight on the problem. Teenagers are already at an increased risk for suicide and depression. Let’s suppose Roche’s PR machine is right and teenagers with severe acne may be at even higher risk. Then why give them a drug that may magnify those risks?
Defenders of Accutane say that it is an invaluable drug, the only treatment available to treat severe cystic acne. They point to the terrible toll that serious acne can take on a teenagers’ self-image, and the permanent scars, both physical and mental, that the disease can leave behind. That may be.
But they can’t be worse than the scars left on a woman who gives birth to a severely deformed baby. Or the damage done to a teenage boy who tries to kill himself, and has to endure the whispers and gossip in the hallways at school when he returns.
And I can’t imagine a worse scar on a mother or a father than living with the knowledge that your child took his own life.
If your children or grandchildren are taking Accutane, please sit down with them and talk about the seriousness of the drug’s potential side effects.
I don’t mean to excuse kids who tease but most do it at some point. I can think of several people I knew during my teenaged years who had severe acne. None of them had it easy. They probably all got some teasing and harassment as they were growing up.
Copyright 1997-2002 by Institute of Health Sciences, L.L.C.
