Acne Medication Prompts Suicide of 13-Year-Old Boy, Mom Alleges

Derek Lagos, a 13-year-old New Jersey middle school student and avid soccer player, committed suicide on October 12, 2009, minutes after arriving home from a normal day at school. According to his parents, Lagos did not have a history of depression and showed no signs of unhappiness.

“Something definitely snapped. There was no note. It was completely unlike Derek,” said Lagos’ mother, Ingrid Schultze-Lagos.

When questioned by police officers that evening about medications her son was taking, Ingrid Schultze-Lagos remembered a conversation she previously had with her son’s dermatologist. The doctor mentioned the suicide of a congressman’s son following the use of Accutane, a medication prescribed to treat acne. Lagos was taking Sotret, a generic version of Accutane.

Accutane and other medications containing isotretinoin, a chemical used to treat moderate to severe acne, have repeatedly been linked to suicide in patients taking the drug. In a January 2009 study, researchers noted that the medications may cause psychological issues.

 “If Derek would have been in his right mind, he would have never, never imposed this pain on us, on the community, on the family, on the friends,” said Schultze-Lagos.

Warnings on the packaging of Sotret, Accutane, and other isotretinoin medications caution users about the risk of suicide. From September 30, 2006 to August 31, 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration received reports of 260 suicides internationally associated with isotretinoin medications.

Had Schultze-Lagos known that more than 200 suicide-related deaths were linked to isotretinoin drugs, she said she never would have allowed her son to take the acne medication. “I would have said no. I would have said, ‘You will be washing your face until you’re 45,’” Schultze-Lagos stated.

Rouche pharmaceuticals, the manufacturers of Accutane, took the medication off the shelves in June 2009, stating that the declining market share attributed to generic versions of the medication prompted the decision.