It couldn’t have been a better day. Jenn, a 25-year-old assistant grocery manager at the local store, had just received the news that she was pregnant. She was overjoyed. The entire store’s staff surprised her later that night at her apartment to congratulate her and her new husband Bill. The two began immediately planning for the family that they had dreamed of since their high school graduation. But upon a visit to the doctor, the couple received devastating news. Due to the side effects of her acne prescription medication, Jenn’s baby had a nearly 30 percent chance of being born with birth defects. Torn between keeping their first child and unwilling to bring a hindered child into the world, the couple chose to terminate the pregnancy early on, devastating them both, and throwing Jenn into a state of depression. Two years later, Jenn and Bill have yet to have their family. Jenn cannot seem to get pregnant, a possible side effect of her abortion.
With the wide variety of prescription drugs on the market today, just about anything seems curable with the pop of a pill. New medications are appearing on the market by the minute, designed to cure any arrange of ailments from depression to stress-related anxiety.
However, some of the new drugs seem to be doing more harm than good. The prescription of the drug called Accutane has been at the heart of this dilemma for over 20 years. Accutane is a powerful drug designed to treat severe nodular cystic acne, which can eventually be disfiguring. While it may seem like a positive treatment, Accutane has been linked to over 2,000 birth defects per year, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Deformities have included such atrocities as missing limbs, missing ears, lack of vital internal organs, and severe mental retardation.
According to The Boston Globe, last Friday the federal advisory council to the FDA recommended that the administration strengthen restrictions on Accutane, making it harder for women who are pregnant to take the drug. The FDA reported that pregnant women taking Accutane have a 28 percent chance of giving birth to a child with defects. 50 percent of those babies will have mental defects and 25 percent will have deformities, according to the Public Citizen.
Currently, the SMART program, a watchdog program designed to protect women from becoming pregnant while on Accutane, provides women with counseling and education sessions on birth defects, two forms of birth control, and monthly pregnancy testing. Women who will not take birth control vow to abstain from sex.
However, the numbers of birth defects are not falling, probably because the SMART program is voluntary, intensifying the push of the federal advisory council to make the program mandatory.
Why stop there?
The Health Research Group of Public Citizen had a more feasible plan, suggesting that Accutane be restricted to only patients who had not responded to any other forms of treatment. Even Hoffmann-La Roche, a division of Accutane’s producer, tried almost two years ago to impose restrictions that would prevent pregnant women from being able to take the drug; however, the motion failed.
The drug has clearly proven itself to be not only dangerous, but life-altering. In 2002, 79 percent of the women who became pregnant, fearing birth defects, elected to have abortions. Moreover, Accutane has been linked to over 200 suicides since 1982, according to Acttoday.org. In many of the suicides, the victim shows no signs of depression or suicidal thought. Experts have suggested that the urge to kill one’s self probably arises so quickly that the victim becomes overwhelmed and loses all sense of reason, until it is too late.
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) is ready to suggest new legislation that will require women using Accutane to be entered into the monitoring system. Stupak lost his son to suicide caused by Accutane in 2000. “How many babies have to be born with serious defects, how many more women need to have miscarriages, and how many more children have to die before the FDA implements meaningful protections and restriction on the use of Accutane?” he asked.
Although Stupak seems to have the right idea, the demand for the drug is high enough that restrictions have been hard to impose. Accutane has not only been prescribed for the severe acne it was designed to treat, but for less severe acne problems that are not disfiguring and could be treated with over-the-counter products. The demand seems to be for a more aesthetic need than a wellness need.
I cannot say that I have ever suffered from severe acne. However, most acne is not a life-threatening or physically-restricting problem. Where do we draw the lines between vanity and our own well-being?
Why are women, in an attempt to achieve something closer to that false idea of beauty society holds, risking the lives of their unborn children? Even if the SMART system becomes mandatory, no amount of watchdog monitoring can ensure that women will take their birth control, abstain from sex, or even worry about giving birth to a child with birth defects.
The only way the FDA can solve the Accutane problem is by pulling Accutane from the market entirely. Although it may help treat severe acne, Accutane poses a serious threat to the lives of not only its users, but the users’ unborn children as well.
Erika Lovley is a Collegian columnist.
