Does Science Back Up Accutane Side Effects Claims?

Nutley, NJWhen it comes to filing lawsuits alleging Accutane side effects such as inflammatory bowel disease, it is often not enough that patients say they developed certain conditions after taking Accutane acne medication. Judges and juries want scientific evidence that links Accutane medication to the reported side effects. At the very least, they want evidence that a large number of people suffered the same or similar effects of the medication, to prove it was not just a fluke that someone developed a serious condition after using medication.

In the Accutane situation, it can be difficult for patients to prove that large numbers of people suffered the same condition. Many people do not associate their inflammatory bowel disease??"specifically, ulcerative colitis??"with the use of Accutane. This could be because many patients ignore the symptoms of ulcerative colitis, assuming they will eventually go away. By the time they are diagnosed, sometimes years after taking the acne medication, patients may not link the ulcerative colitis with the Accutane.

Because that link is not made, the development of ulcerative colitis after the use of Accutane may go underreported.

That means science must step in to establish a link between the use of Accutane (known generically as isotretinoin) and the development of ulcerative colitis.

One study, published in the September 2010 issue of The American Journal of Gastroenterology, concluded that ulcerative colitis is associated with previous exposure to isotretinoin. Researchers wrote, "[Ulcerative colitis] was strongly associated with previous isotretinoin exposure."

That risk was greater in patients who had taken isotretinoin for more than two months. Furthermore, researchers found that the higher the dose of isotretinoin, the greater the risk of ulcerative colitis.

Ulcerative colitis is a form of inflammatory bowel disease that causes ulcers in the lining of the patient's large intestine and rectum. Symptoms include abdominal pain and cramping, blood and pus in the stools, diarrhea, fever and weight loss.

Researchers did not find a link between isotretinoin and Crohn's disease, another form of inflammatory bowel disease.