Campaigning for patients harmed by isotretinoin (Roaccutane). Demanding suspension for under-eighteens and a mandatory consent form for adults.
Dr Neil MacFarlane’s submission to 2020 MHRA Review: click here.
Link to first two blog pieces, 12th and 28th November, below.
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isotretinoin (Roaccutane) ‘induces a high frequency of severe and life threatening birth defects.’ Current ‘Summary of Product Characteristics’ provided to doctors, and known since the 1980s. The patient information leaflet (‘PIL’) merely states the drug ‘can’ have these effects.
‘The risk of depression in subjects with no previous history of the condition increases close to threefold after being exposed to isotretinoin.’ Azoulay et al, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2008. Patients are not informed of this.
In 1994, a decade after isotretinoin (Roaccutane) was marketed, 152 cases of sexual dysfunction were reported in the Lancet. This has never been properly followed up by dermatologists, despite many reports of permanent sexual dysfunction received by drug regulators in Europe and North America. Patients are not informed of this.
Links to news pieces, and other websites:
isotretinoin/Roaccutane linked to suicide and permanent sexual dysfunction: Channel 4 news piece of October 2019. AcneAwareUK will be countering the claim (6.10) made by Roche, that a single academic paper of 2010 reliably showed ‘no observed link’ between the drug and suicide.
Olly’s Friendship Foundation was set up in 2014, in memory of Olly who struggled with mental health problems for many years. His parents felt that doctors dismissed the possibility of drug side effects.
2012 BBC documentary on suicide and Roaccutane, Dying for Clear Skin, available on Youtube.
PropeciaHelp has a good, up-to-date page on isotretinoin/Roaccutane, and also a page with short biographies of those who have died by suicide.
April Charity’s blog, also on Twitter.
AcneAwareUK 