Now they’re saying that the suicide “Osama supporter” kid may have developed mental problems from his acne medication. Obviously we’re not quite done grasping at straws.
- The Food and Drug Administration says 147 people taking Accutane, which affects the body’s central nervous system, either committed suicide or were hospitalized for suicide attempts from 1982 to May 2000.
That statistic covers eighteen years. I’m sure during any eighteen year span you could come up with 150 people who committed suicide while taking Pepto Bismol. Or drinking Mountain Dew. Or being on their period. This doesn’t seem like a very meaningful line of research to me. (And God, how embarrassing. Not only did he suffer the indignity of being called a terrorist, but now everyone in the world knows the poor kid had to take special medicine for his pimples.)
martin
January 9, 2002 — 10:48 am
Apparently accutane is quite a dodgy drug. I know two people who were on it and they were given quite stringent warnings. Though fyling a plane intoi a building is a tad extreme.
Kris
January 9, 2002 — 11:27 am
Yeah, the article mentioned the warnings. But I got the impression that that’s just covering their ass. The FDA are still investigating it, but they haven’t really shown any causal link yet. They just wanna be sure they’re not gonna get sued if it turns out that it DOES make people suicidal.
Anonymous
January 10, 2002 — 12:50 am
Man I “spotted” loads of mistakes in this story. Talk about making a mountain outta a molehill.
Now if he had one of those growing on his face..that would be a problem. Especially when the mole would come out and wave a flag with “Hi Mom!” on it during press conferences.