Opinion

Parental monitoring of teens is reasonable in isotretinoin therapy

LETTER — Posted Aug. 28, 2006

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Regarding "Mandatory patient registry can place limits on care" (Column, Aug. 7): As a physician and a parent of a teen (although male) who underwent isotretinoin therapy, I was astonished at the case of the teenage girl who became pregnant while apparently taking the drug.

While we cannot control everything our patients do, nothing is mentioned about how the parent was counseled to be involved in this process. Although the mother does not have to be present during the visit by a 16 year old, it seems that she should have had a vested interest in the welfare of her minor child, and have been instructed to monitor both the isotretinoin and oral contraceptive ingestion.

If teen patients are not willing to be monitored by their parents, then perhaps, they should not be offered this expensive and teratogenic therapy.

Wilma Schiller, MD , Potomac, Md.

Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/08/28/edlt0828.htm.

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