ST. LOUIS, May 16 (UPI) -- U.S. adolescents with moderate to severe acne experienced a reduction rather than an increase of depression symptoms while taking the medication isotretinoin.
Dr. Christina Chia of Saint Louis University Health Sciences Center, St. Louis, investigated whether patients with moderate to severe acne treated with isotretinoin -- Accutane -- experienced an increase in depressive symptoms compared with patients treated with conservative therapy.
Isotretinoin, a synthetic vitamin A, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1982. It is the most effective therapy for acne that is unresponsive to other treatment.
However, the increasing number of cases of suicide and depression in patients using isotretinoin has raised concern.
"The use of isotretinoin in the treatment of moderate-severe acne in adolescents did not increase depressive symptoms," says Chia. "On the contrary, our study shows that treatment of acne improves depressive symptoms."
The findings are published in the Archives of Dermatology.
