Bart Stupak: “I rise tonight to inform the American public on the safety concerns of Accutane. Accutane is a dangerous, powerful…”

“I rise tonight to inform the American public on the safety concerns of Accutane. Accutane is a dangerous, powerful prescription drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1982 to treat severe, recalcitrant, nodular acne that is unresponsive to conventional treatments, including antibiotics. Today, approximately 1.5 million prescriptions are written each year to hundreds of thousands of young people. The horrific birth defects associated with Accutane are well-known and understood. The psychiatric effects associated with the drug, including depression, suicidal thoughts and behavior, suicide and aggression are less known and are denied by its manufacturer, drug company giant Hoffman-LaRoche. Tonight, I want to share the results of a study that sheds light on these psychiatric effects. Dr. J.D. Bremner of Emory University recently completed a study which demonstrated that Accutane affects the metabolism of the orbitofrontal cortex, a brain area known to mediate symptoms of depression. If you look at this chart, Dr. Bremner had two PET scans, the baseline PET scan before the patient began Accutane therapy and 4 months into the Accutane therapy. Even my inexpert eyes can tell the difference, and Dr. Bremner will present his findings in November to a convention of psychiatrists studying this issue.”