Pregnancy Prevention: Canadian Women Ignoring Guidelines In Using Harmful Acne Drug

Canada's pregnancy prevention program has been rendered ineffective, according to a new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The culprit? The women taking the powerful anti-acne drug isotretinoin, Accutane.

Anonymized patient records of 59,271 women who were taking isotretinoin from ages 12 to 48 between 1996 and 2011 were the subject of the study. The women came from British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, Science Daily reported.

During the course of the study, there were 1473 pregnancies, with 8% or 118 of them resulting in live births. Out of the 118, 9% or 11 babies had congenital abnormalities.

Pregnancy Prevention Guidelines

Researchers found out that around 30-50% of the women who were taking the drug did not follow the pregnancy prevention program's guidelines. Given the detrimental effects of isotretinoin to a fetus, Science Daily said, this statistic represents the poor performance of the Canadian program.

"Poor adherence with the Canadian pregnancy prevention guidelines means that Canada, inadvertently, is using pregnancy termination rather than pregnancy prevention to manage fetal risk from isotretinoin," said Dr. David Henry, the study's lead author. Henry is a senior scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and executive co-lead of the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES).

According to the study, pregnancy rates during the course of taking isotretinoin had a range of 4 to 6/1000 users while overall rates including the period after taking the drug increased. At-risk period for isotretinoin exposure lasts beyond the period of taking the drug.

Canadian women uneducated on birth defect risk of acne drug Accutane: study https://t.co/V1OavVqs8c @carlyweeks pic.twitter.com/ECqvb0qAvf

— The Globe and Mail (@globeandmail) April 25, 2016

A Drug That Causes Pregnancy Termination, Birth Defects And Death

According to Medical News Today, isotretinoin is part of a class of drugs called retinoids. It is prescribed for "severe recalcitrant nodular acne that has not responded to other treatments." Isotretinoin minimizes the production of compounds that contribute to acne.

It has previously been recognized that isotretinoin ups the chances for the termination of pregnancy, birth defects such as craniofacial and heart defects and death of a newborn shortly after birth, Medical News Today added.

National Post was more specific in describing the craniofacial defects that isotretinoin causes. It said that fetuses that are exposed to isotretinoin during the first weeks of pregnancy may be born with deformed skulls, bearing an elongated or conical shape.