Suicide and Acne: Does Popular Drug Explain Link?

(CBS/AP) Can acne drugs cause suicide?

New research suggests that people receiving treatment for severe acne are at higher risk of attempting suicide, but it's unclear whether that's caused by the condition or a commonly prescribed drug.

Scientists at Sweden's Karolinska Institute studied data from nearly 6,000 people who were prescribed the drug, isotretinoin, from 1980 to 1989. They compared the patient information to hospital discharge records and death registers from 1980 to 2000. According to the records, 128 of the people surveyed were admitted to a hospital after a suicide attempt.

Anders Sundstrom and colleagues say "severe acne is not a trivial condition" but emphasize that acne-related suicide attempts are rare. There was about one suicide attempt for every 2,300 people taking the acne drug.

The study was paid for by the Swedish Research Council and was published today in the medical journal BMJ.