Acne Drug's Psychiatric Side-Effects

Kahn Gauthier Swick is investigating possible Accutane legal actions against Hoffman-La Roche, Inc., manufacturer of the prescription acne drug Accutane, to recover for side effects such as psychological damage--sometimes leading to suicide--suffered by Accutane users.

As of late 2000, the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had received reports of 66 suicides and 1,373 other psychiatric side effects in Accutane users. Accutane was approved in 1982 to treat only a very special type of acne--severe nodular acne that had not responded to other therapies. Critics estimate that most of the 500,000 people in the United States who try it each year have acne too mild for the Accutane.

The possible connection between Accutane and side effects such as suicide became national news in October, 2000, after U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak from Michigan said that his 17-year-old son's suicide earlier that year might be linked to Accutane side effects. Bart Stupak Jr., known as 'B.J.,' shot himself in the head with his father's gun in the early hours of May 14. Stupak, a football player who was popular in school, commited suicide after a prom-night party.

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