Does Accutane Lead to Suicide
The sort of public health crusade led by U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak and his wife Laurie really annoy me. For those who haven’t followed this case, the Stupak’s son, Bart Jr., committed suicide. They’re convinced he was a happy-go-lucky kid who never would have done that sort of thing and blame the anti-acne drug he was taking, Accutane.
Look, what happened to this family is a tragedy, but the numbers just don’t add up. The FDA in 1998 reported that about 31 people had committed suicide while taking Accutane since it was approved in 1983. That’s about two suicides a year.
Considering that the lion’s share of Accutane prescriptions go to the group of individuals with the highest suicide rate — young males — it is hardly surprising that there would be a number of suicides among Accutane users. There would be a serious problem if the suicide rate among Accutane users like Bart Jr. was signficantly higher than the rate among young men not taking the drug, but so far there is absolutely no evidence for that — in fact the numerous articles about the Stupak’s fight against the drug are marked by a noticeable lack of any comparative statistics of suicides by Accutane users vs. non-Accutane users.
Which is not to say that somebody might yet find such a link, but at least they should have evidence more solid than a series of anecdotes before launching an attack on such a highly useful drug.
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