People with severe acne can be up to twice as likely to try to kill themselves as their peers, say medics.
By Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent
6:30AM GMT 12 Nov 2010
The risk peaks in the months after coming off a drug called isotretinoin, found the Swedish study of almost 6,000 people with the condition.
It has long been known that people with acne are more prone to depression. While it is most often associated with teenagers going through puberty, many adults get it too. Stress is thought to trigger it.
This study has found that, in the six months after starting treatment, those with severe acne were 93 per cent more likely to have made a suicide attempt than others without it.
The researchers, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, believe this might be because some patients became distraught when their physical appearance improves but there social life does not. Additionally, the drug does not always work.
The study, published online in the British Medical Journal (bmj.com) today (FRI), was trying to establish if higher suicide rates were caused by isotretinoin itself.
Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8125984/...icide-risk.html
British doctors prescribing the drug are advised that it can result in mood changes including depression and suicidal thoughts, although such cases are described as rare.
Bu the researchers found that attempted suicide rates among those with severe acne began to rise up to three years before starting treatment. In the year before treatment they were a third more likely than average to do so.
They therefore concluded that although the increased risk of attempted suicide could be "a consequence of exposure to the drug", they believed "a more probable interpretation is that the underlying severe acne may best explain the raised risk".
Within three years of treatment ending the attempted suicide rate among patients had dropped to the average population level, they noted, suggesting the drug could actually save lives overall.
However, they advised that the psychiatric state of patients with severe acne should be closely monitored for at least a year after treatment ends.
Dr Sarah Bailey, a lecturer in pharmacy and pharmacology at Bath University, commented: "This is an important paper that strengthens the view that acne itself can have significant psychological effects and that there is a low risk of suicide for some acne patients.
"However, the controversial issue of increased suicide risk with isotretinoin use is not resolved by this paper, which the authors themselves acknowledge.
"Perhaps their most interesting and novel finding is that the risk of suicide is increased after treatment has stopped and therefore it is essential to continue to monitor patients carefully."
Well, subjectively I'd say this is a no brainier as far as increased rate of suicide by acne suffers.
The stop treatment makes sense since acne often comes back once you discontinue using a drug. Also the drug itself might not be the actual cause of the suicide. I could easily see someone saying "this sh*t ain't working* and throw in the towel. Or see that it comes back and throw in the towel. I'd like to see the actual data where the acne suffer says "this drug successfully worked for me" and then killed himself/herself. I'd speculate that in those rare occasion the suicide rate would be less considering the patient would see their life as a second chance. I would. They didn't cover enough variables. Did the patients acne clear up? All they said was severe acne patients were on a drug, they didn't say whether or not the drug worked or the degree to which it did.
I've tried to commit suicide for years now over the scarring caused by this damned acne .... am so depressed and angry over it ... i wake up in the morning wondering what the hell am i doing still living ..... i shy away from people , i don't understand why scarring isn't more of an issue in medical science .... i might sound selfish as medical science would be more focused on things like Cancer .... but damn it acne is cancer of the body and the face ... it's hell
It wouldn't make sense if people committed suicide if their skin clears up very well... After accutane... Either way it's just sad to see people die.
Ironically i am suicidal not bout acne but personally seeking a girlfriend. A relationship. But I am bit depressed about my face sometimes......
It wouldn't make sense if people committed suicide if their skin clears up very well... After accutane... Either way it's just sad to see people die.
Ironically i am suicidal not bout acne but personally seeking a girlfriend. A relationship. But I am bit depressed about my face sometimes......
Do you have any scarring ? ....
It wouldn't make sense if people committed suicide if their skin clears up very well... After accutane... Either way it's just sad to see people die.
Ironically i am suicidal not bout acne but personally seeking a girlfriend. A relationship. But I am bit depressed about my face sometimes......
Do you have any scarring ? ....
Icepick deep pits scars and dark spots. Hyperpigmentations.