Patients on Isotretinoin Should Get Regular Psychiatric Screenings, Study Suggests

Patients who take isotretinoin for severe acne may be vulnerable to several psychiatric conditions, according to astudy published today inJAMA Dermatology. Specifically, depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, and mood swings were among the most common psychiatric adverse events in patients taking isotretinoin reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over a 20-year period.Although previous studies and media reports have highlighted an association between suicidality and depression in patients taking isotretinoin, “our results suggest that other, underappreciated psychiatric adverse events may be linked to its use,” wrote senior author Arash Mostaghimi, M.D., M.P.A., M.P.H., of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues. The findings suggest the importance of incorporating regular psychiatric screenin gs as part of follow-up care of patients taking isotretinoin, they noted.The researchers analyzed reports of 17,829 psychiatric adverse events with isotretinoin as the primary suspect drug in the FDA ’s Adverse Event Reporting System from 1997 through 2017. There were 7,547 reports of depressive disorders (42.3% of all adverse event reports); 2,962 reports of emotional lability, such as mood swings and irritability (16.6%); and 2,412 reports of anxiety disorders (13.5%). Additionally, there w ere 2,278 reports of suicidal ideation, 602 reports of attempted suicide, and 368 reports of completed suicide. Among the 13,553 adverse events that reported patient age...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Accutane acne adverse events anxiety depression FDA iPLEDGE irritability isotretinoin mood disorders suicidal ideation suicide Source Type: research