January 08, 2002

silhouette3.JPG From the desk of Mindles H. Dreck:

Hoffman-La Roche accountable for Teen Suicide Pilot?

According to A.P., the student pilot who flew into a skyscraper was prescribed a controversial drug, Accutane:

The Food and Drug Administration says 147 people taking Accutane, which affects the body's central nervous system, either committed suicide or were hospitalized for suicide attempts from 1982 to May 2000.

There has yet to be any conclusive evidence, however, that the drug causes depression or suicide, and the manufacturer maintains it is safe...
Accutane's link to suicide has been the subject of a congressional investigation, spearheaded by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Michigan, whose 17-year-old son committed suicide while taking the drug. More hearings are scheduled this spring.

Depression has been listed as a possible side effect on Accutane's label since 1986, and the FDA in 1998 strengthened the warning to say suicide, too, was possible.

Since last year, doctors prescribing Accutane have been asked to have patients read and sign an informed consent form warning that some people have developed mental problems while taking the drug.

The makers of the drug, Hoffman-La Roche, have agreed to conduct a study looking at the link between the drug's use and depression, which will begin later this year, company spokeswoman Carolyn Glynn said.


Whenever a younger person does something this deranged, the search for the "truly responsible party" begins. The fact that he was taking Accutane is an apologist's dream. He's got a poor self-image because of Acne, he takes this suicide pill from Hoffman-La Roche and bango you just gotta spend your Saturday writing a note sympathizing with a mass-murdering terrorist, flying your prop plane into illegal airspace and slamming it into an empty office building.

This is going to make some lawyer rich.

Posted by Mindles H. Dreck at January 8, 2002 08:34 PM | Technorati inbound links
Comments

That's barely 8 suicides a year from accutane. Not surprising considering that the lion's share of the prescriptions go to male teens -- a group with an extremely high suicide rate (at least relative to other subpopulations).

The other common complaint about accutane is that it causes birth defects. I had a childhood friend taking the drug when it first came out in the early 1980s and it had this big warning label about how pregnant women shouldn't even touch the pills and even though he was 12 or 13 at the time, he had to watch some video or similar counseling method that reinforced the birth defect part. And yet a small number of women have nonetheless taken the drug during during a pregnancy.

It is amazing the drug has stayed on the market when more important drugs like rezulin have been forced off.

BTW, the middle box on your site doesn't appear in Mozilla. OTOH, you've certainly got a lot of gumption to be designing your site entirely in CSS.

Posted by: Brian Carnell on January 8, 2002 10:36 PM

Small point: "Highjacker" isn't accurate, is it?

Posted by: Thomas on January 9, 2002 04:07 AM

Main points: maybe people on drugs with side effects like this shouldn't get to fly a plane. Maybe 15 year olds shouldn't get to fly a plane.

Also, given that Accutane is prescribed for severe acne, I wonder if the Accutane "side effect" study was able to distinguish between drug-induced depression and run-of-the-mill pre-existing depression?

Posted by: Thomas on January 9, 2002 04:11 AM

"Highjacker" was indeed not correct. A little self-editing, 'Mindles'! I have changed it to "suicide pilot"

Posted by: 'Mindles H. Dreck' on January 9, 2002 07:58 AM

Comments are Closed.