Potential Association Between Tetracycline Antibiotics and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

I have reported on the on-again, off-again linkage of isotretinoin use with development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Reports included a compilation of cases reported to the FDA's MedWatch program, a study from Manitoba reporting a lack of association, and a large epidemiologic study that linked ulcerative colitis (UC), but not Crohn disease (CD), to isotretinoin use. It has often been pointed out that almost all isotretinoin recipients have had prior antibiotic therapy, raising the question of a link between oral antibiotics, especially tetracyclines, and IBD.

These investigators performed a retrospective cohort study of 94,487 patients with acne followed by general practitioners in the U.K for 406,294 person-years. A total of 24,085…