My good friend Peter put me on to the cold tale of former child actor Jonathan Brandis. The young man killed hung himself bringing his sort life to a tradgic end. Isotretinoin, the clinical name for Accutane, might have been involved.

Accutane is a drug used for the treatment of severe acne. More important are the side effects. The list reads like a joke from Saturday Night Live. Common side effects include mild acne flare, infection of the cuticles, cheilitis, skin fragility, skin peeling, rash, nose bleeds, hyperlipidaemia, raised liver enzymes, headaches, hair thinning.

Less frequent side effects are severe acne flare, raised blood glucose level, increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and fatigue.

The side effects that are considered rare are impaired night vision, cataracts, optic neuritis, menstrual disturbances, inflammatory bowel disease, pancreatitis, hepatitis, corneal opacities, papilloedema, idiopathic intracranial hypertension, skeletal hyperostosis, extraosseous calcification, and it is believed that severe depression can occur, although there is no conclusive evidence for this.

Even after disconinuion use of the drug patients still may experience alopecia (hair loss), arthralgias, decreased night vision, degenerative disc disease, keloids, bone disease. High dosages of isotretinoin have been reported to cause rosacea (a disease of severe facial skin redness and irritation).

Sounds pretty bad right. Well, there is more. Isotretinoin is a teratogen and is highly likely to cause birth defects if taken during pregnancy. Various case reports of depression, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, and suicide in patients treated with isotretinoin have been reported.

Okay, lets break this down. There is a chance that the product won’t work and instead will cause severe acne flare. Aside from that there are 4 paragraphs worth of side effects, one of which is potential suicide. How is this drug still licensed? How is it possible for this drug to still be sold?

Answer, the drug company keeps changing the name so the public doesn’t know it is the same drug… Um, I trust my doctor… how well do you trust yours?