Trial reportPsychopharmacology2012
Influence of isotretinoin on hippocampal-based learning in human subjects.
Trial report in Psychopharmacology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adverse Events in Isotretinoin Therapy: A Single-Arm Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Use of isotretinoin and risk of depression in patients with acne: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open · 2019Pooled it
- Micronutrient-Fortified Milk and Academic Performance among Chinese Middle School Students: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.Nutrients · 2017Trial
- A physics-informed graph neural network to approximate docking-based binding affinity for DYRK2 in Alzheimer's drug repurposing.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Review
- Revisiting APP secretases: an overview on the holistic effects of retinoic acid receptor stimulation in APP processing.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2022Review
- Isotretinoin and neuropsychiatric side effects: Continued vigilance is needed.Journal of affective disorders reports · 2021Article
- A multitude of signaling pathways associated with Alzheimer's disease and their roles in AD pathogenesis and therapy.Medicinal research reviews · 2021Review
- Association of acne, hirsutism, androgen, anxiety, and depression on cognitive performance in polycystic ovary syndrome: A cross-sectional study.International journal of reproductive biomedicine · 2020Article
- Harnessing endophenotypes and network medicine for Alzheimer's drug repurposing.Medicinal research reviews · 2020Review
- Psychiatric and Developmental Effects of Isotretinoin (Retinoid) Treatment for Acne Vulgaris.Current therapeutic research, clinical and experimental · 2019Review
- A review of diagnosis and treatment of acne in adult female patients.International journal of women's dermatology · 2018Review
- Targeting Retinoid Receptors to Treat Schizophrenia: Rationale and Progress to Date.CNS drugs · 2016Review
- Inter-relationships between isotretinoin treatment and psychiatric disorders: Depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, psychosis and suicide risks.World journal of psychiatry · 2015Review
- Vitamin A deficiency impairs spatial learning and memory: the mechanism of abnormal CBP-dependent histone acetylation regulated by retinoic acid receptor alpha.Molecular neurobiology · 2015Article
- Review
- Systematic review of the literature on vitamin A and memory.Dementia & neuropsychologiaArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
rationaleThe acne drug isotretinoin has 13-cis retinoic acid as its active agent. Adverse effects that have been described include severe depression. Animal studies indicate that the hippocampus is particularly sensitive to retinoic acid. Changes induced by isotretinoin to hippocampal function could contribute to depression but may be more evident in altered visuospatial learning and memory, the primary function of the hippocampus.
objectivesWe aimed to test the hypothesis that a course of oral isotretinoin therapy would result in declining visuospatial learning and memory.
methodsCANTAB tasks designed to assess visuospatial memory were performed repeatedly on 14 males and 3 females in an open prospective observational study of patients with severe acne undergoing isotretinoin therapy. Beck's Depression Inventory and Global Acne Grade were also administered.
resultsPerformance stayed unchanged for DMS, SRM and PRM tasks, while surprisingly participants improved their speed on the PRM task. Performance improved across sessions on the PAL task, and moreover the dose of isotretinoin correlated with improvement in the total trial score, reduction in total error rate and stage completed at the first trial.
conclusionIsotretinoin does not reduce learning and memory and our study suggests that it may instead lead to a dose-related improvement in specific aspects of hippocampal learning and memory. Retinoic acid functions in the hippocampus as the active metabolite of vitamin A, suggesting that this may be a limiting factor in the human hippocampus and addition of exogenous retinoic acid brings levels closer to an optimal state.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.