Women in Canada Using Accutane Acne Treatment Uneducated About Its Risk for Birth Defect, Study Finds

Acne has always been known as the most common cause of depression and low self-esteem among patients who have it. When they use the commonly prescribed and highly effective drug isotretinoin (Accutane), there is an instant boost in confidence which is always a positive result. However, for almost more than 30 years, this drug has been branded as a danger to pregnant women.

According to Medical Daily, women don't only face higher rates of spontaneous abortion while on the medication; babies also get exposed to it in the womb and have the biggest possibility of being born with severe birth abnormalities. Certain steps have been taken to prevent tragic outcomes like these to happen. Women who are on this drug have strict pregnancy prevention guidelines and yet a new study in Canada suggests that there are still many women and their doctors who fail to follow the rules. Researchers have discovered that about 50 percent of pregnant women taking the drug do not comply with the set regulations.

Researchers have estimated that at least one to two children born in Canada every year suffer from birth defects as a result of isotretinoin treatment. Ontario was found to have the highest rate of pregnancy among women on the drug with 90 percent also receiving social assistance at the same time. It has always been clear with researchers that those with lower socioeconomic backgrounds and increased risk for health problems always go together.

The Globe and Mail stated that the findings imply that doctors are not exhausting all options to warn patients about the risks of isotretinoin. The results also showed that there are still too many women who have not been educated on the potential dangers of the acne drug, the study's authors concluded. Dr. Brandace Winquist, research consultant to the Saskatchewan Health Quality Council and co-author of the study, said the findings regarding socioeconomic factors made the researchers question "the appropriateness of the materials shared with this population as well as the ability to afford contraceptives and reliably use them well."

To conduct the study, the researchers looked at health data for female patients between 12 and 48 who were prescribed isotretinoin from 1996 to 2011 in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. Because of the challenges of tracking all pregnancies and outcomes using only retrospective administrative data, the researchers created two categories for their results: a narrow category that only included women taking isotretinoin who also experienced either miscarriage, abortion, live birth, still birth or other pregnancy defects.

The study was done at Health Canada's request, however the department responded late at the request for information about what it plans to do with the results. The researchers of the study found that birth control rates for women before being prescribed isotretinoin as well as during treatment were almost the same. In Saskatchewan, 29 percent of women were prescribed with birth control in the year before starting isotretinoin, compared to 24 percent who were prescribed with birth control while being on the drug.