Accutane is a member of the drug class called retinoids, which have been demonstrated to affect the way the body reads genes. Use of the drug while pregnant is known to harm fetuses and reduce the quantity of brain cells that they produce. This is why cautions are taken to ensure that female who are pregnant or who can become pregnant do not take the drug. However, recent studies suggest that brain-cell generation may be equally important in adolescents and adults. Researchers at the University of Baths and the University of Texas in Austin express Accutane might also interfere with the body's production of the mood hormone serotonin.

While experience from the more than 13 million users of Accutane worldwide shows that just 5 to 10 percent experience from side effects, retinoids have also been implied in connections to Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia, so doctors are eager to understand how the drug works.

Depression Linked to Acne Treatment

Acne treatment with the medication isotretinoin (Accutane) has been implicated in an increase in feelings of depression among adolescent users, and while the link has never been demonstrated, researchers have collected evidence through an animal study.

Although scientist Dr. Sarah Bailey knew that it is not possible to ask a mouse if it is depressed, its behaviour can be analyzed and modeled through two tests. The first involves causing the adolescent mice to experience stress by forcing it to swim, while the second produces stress by hanging the mice by its tail.

Acne Cure Tested for Side Effects

Normally, a mouse will swim, climb or struggle, and only periodically stop in a period of resignation. A depressed mouse will remain in its resigned state longer than one that is healthy. The mice given human-equivalent doses of Accutane tended to demonstrate increased depression-related behavior.

Accutane producer Roche says, "While no causal relationship has been established between Accutane and either depression or suicide, we are constantly monitoring all available safety databases on Accutane worldwide." However, the World Health Organization has reported 720 cases of psychiatric complications linked to the administration of Accutane, including 84 suicides and suicide attempts.

The allegation that isotretinoin promoted depression and suicide has won a few lawsuits, and is in part responsible for the strict control of the drug, especially in the US. Several case studies of depression, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, and suicide in people treated with the acne skin care isotretinoin have been sent to the U.S. FDA Adverse Events Reporting System, with 431 incidences documented between 1982 and May 2001 - of these 37 patients had committed suicide.

Idiosyncratic Effects From Acne Skin Care

Studies have demonstrated that people with acne, the population group eligible to undergo isotretinoin treatment, have an increased chance of clinical depression compared with the general population. Isotretinoin related depression is "an idiosyncratic side effect." Often anxiety can bring on acne and depression, leading to more anxiety. Correspondingly, treatment of severe acne using isotretinoin has been demonstrated to reduce anxiety and depression.

One study using positron emission tomography (PET) showed functional brain imaging changes in patients treated with isotretinoin, however the clinical significance of this finding is unclear.