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Acne can lead teenagers to consider suicide, study finds

Posted Sep 20, 2010 by Beth Gaddis

Updated Sep 20, 2010 at 02:25 PM

Teenagers with severe acne are two to three more times to have suicidal thoughts than their classmates with clear complexions, according to new study.

What does that mean?  It’s the disease, not the treatment that has kids feeling depressed, said Dr. Neil Fenske, M.D., who practices dermatopathology and dermatology in Tampa.

“We already know teenagers are prone to suicide as it is and now you add bad acne to it,” he said during a phone interview this afternoon. And if they’re stressed out by the acne, that could make it worse, but it’s not because of the drug that they’re depressed.”

The study funded by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health surveyed about 4,000 teenagers ages 18 or 19.  Researchers found boys with bad acne were three times as likely to have suicidal thoughts as their clear-faced peers and girls with bad acne were twice as likely to have suicidal ideation as kids with clear complexions.

For years, there were fears that it was the medication – like Roche’s Accutane – that led to depression.  The manufacturer stopped making it because of litigation.  Dr. Fenske hopes this study will stop the companies that make the generic version of the drug from removing that as well.
“It’s hard to see patients with pockmark scars. It impacted their relationships with individuals of opposite sex, their ability to get jobs, their self-esteem.  Acne has an emotional toll.  There are people who even have one pimple and it drives them crazy.  Imagine having it all over your body.”

Click here to read CNN’s story about the study.

Click here to read Dr. Fenske’s advice column “I have acne. What am I doing wrong?” from the August 25th edition of 4You in The Tampa Tribune.