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

While experience from the more than 13 million consumers of Accutane worldwide suggests that only 5 to 10 percent suffer 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 drug isotretinoin (Accutane) has been implicated in an increase in feelings of depression among adolescent users, and while the link has never been demonstrated, scientists 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 with two tests. The first includes 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 and struggle, and only periodically stop in a period of resignation. A depressed mouse will stay in its resigned state longer than one that is healthy. The mice receiving human-equivalent doses of Accutane tended to demonstrate increased depression-related behavior.

Accutane producer Roche claims, "While no causal relationship has been demonstrated between Accutane and either depression or suicide, we are permanently inspecting all available safety databases on Accutane worldwide." However, the World Health Organization has reported 720 cases of mental problems linked to the use 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 severe control of the drug, especially in the US. Various case studies of depression, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, and suicide in patients treated with the acne skin care isotretinoin have been sent to the U.S. FDA Adverse Events Reporting System, with 431 cases documented between 1982 and May 2001 - of these 37 patients had committed suicide.

Idiosyncratic Effects From Acne Skin Care

Studies have shown that patients 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." Usually anxiety can bring on acne and depression, leading to more anxiety. Also, treatment of severe acne with isotretinoin has been shown to minimize anxiety and depression.

One experiment utilising positron emission tomography (PET) showed functional brain imaging variations in patients treated with isotretinoin, however the clinical relevance of this finding is unclear.