Suicide Attempt Prozac 08/05/1989 U.S.A. Woman Uses Gun in Suicide Attempt
Suicide Attempt Prozac 1905-08 U.S.A. Woman Uses Gun in Suicide Attempt
http://web.archive.org/web/20130202060845/http://ssristories.com/show.php?item=100489-
Summary:
http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/AC/prozac/2443T1.PDF
CASEY: Thank you. Debra Douglas?
DOUGLAS : Debra Douglas. Back in 1988 I sought
help for a reactive depression after the sexual assault on my
three-year-old son and subsequent court proceedings.
Prozac, new on the market, seemed a perfect drug for
me, or so said my doctor, because of the minimal side effects
namely, weight loss. I began taking 20 mg of Prozac and soon
found myself feeling very much back to my old self, energetic
and feeling good, but slowly felt as if it were wearing off
and I was gaining weight.
I questioned the doctor each time I went for my
prescription renewal how this could be; my eating habits
hadn’t changed. I was originally told I could expect a weigh
loss . In trying to obtain the desired effects, my doctor
increasing the dosage, with little apparent concern for
adverse effects.
By the end of a year and a half on Prozac my doctor had me at a
dosage rate of 80 mg. I questioned that other problems I was
having surely were related to Prozac, only to be told that there
no relation.
My gynecologist had referred me to the University of
Miami with my chart, across which was written "I give up." I
had lower abdominal pain accompanied by a spotty brown
discharge from my uterus that led to chronic bacterial
infections. I underwent diagnostic surgery, laparoscopy, and
D&C under general anesthesia. It was later suggested I have
a hysterectomy.
Trusting the doctors and their knowledge, I accepted
their answers that Prozac could not be related. At 80 mg I
was having the desired effects, according to my doctor. My
life was very much in order, things were going very well,
except for the continuing saga of the gyn problem.
I had finished my work day at the port for the
cruise line which I have worked for, for almost four years
now, and love working for, met my family at the ballfield for
my son’s baseball game. The game was fun, as usual, and when
it ended I left in my car. About two blocks from home I had
a seizure-like attack that came on suddenly. I somehow
reached home, collapsed in the door, and once my husband
reached home I was rushed by ambulance to the hospital.
I was having what they called an explosive headache
episode and was in extreme pain totally out of control. Many
tests were taken, The next day after
no real findings, I was released. After my release another
explosive headache episode occurred, with the same intensity, out
of the blue, as the first one. I was again rushed to emergency,
more tests, and a longer hospital stay. Again, no real findings
other than the suggestion by the neurologist that these headache
episodes were emotion-related.
After nine days of being on I.V. Demerol every
to six hours and suffering another attack while there, I
was released, sent home this time with a stronger barbiturate for
pain. I could not function normally. I tried going back to
work but the constant head pain that the pills didn’t relieve
was overwhelming. I became a desperate person.
One pain pill after another didn’t work, so I took
a handful one night. I woke up the next morning very sick.
My head hurt so badly I could barely hold it up. My husband,
sympathetic as he was, and not knowing I had taken an overdose
the night before, felt very helpless and left me to sleep that
morning after he’d seen the boys off to school. He kissed me
goodbye and said he’d be back in an hour, he had to run to the
bank.
For me to take the next step, a sudden impulsive
action that overrode all rational thoughts, needing to get up,
reach into the gun cabinet on the closet shelf, and make this
headache go away. I had to get the gun. I took the 9-mm
automatic, sat down on the bed, and put the gun to my head.
I wasn’t clear on how to shoot the gun, so I lowered it and
pulled the trigger. It fired into the bed. As I went to bolt
it back up to my head, the feather-touch trigger had tripped
after that first shot and I blew a four-inch hole out of the
bottom of my arm instead of my head.
That gun, I later learned, was loaded with hollowpoint
bullets, and I shudder to think what could have
happened. I also know how lucky I am to be here today. After
arm surgery and a one-week hospitalization, I spent another
three-and-a-half weeks in a private psychiatric hospital
recuperating.
After I was released, I began seeing how Prozac could have caused
this. I started putting this together well. No longer was I
bothered by the lower abdominal pain. I was free of infection. I
hadn’t had a headache in several weeks, and I had also been off
the Prozac for a month then.
My gynecologist sees no reason for doing
hysterectomy, as my gyn checkup is completely normal. To this
date I’ve not had a recurrence of the gyn problem and I’ve not
had one headache episode or head pain that I feel certain
Prozac caused. Prozac did this to me. Had someone looked
further into Prozac, believe me, even mentioned early on of
the so-called remote possibility that Prozac could cause any
of these adverse effects, especially the act of putting a
loaded gun to my head, to want to die so violently, steps
could have been taken to avoid it. Thank God I was a lousy
shot .
As you hear the many stories today, you can see we
are real people, not small percentage numbers of a minority
suffering these silenced adverse effects. Please look at us,
listen to us, take this Prozac off the market until it can be
proven 100-percent free against violent turns in personality,
until Eli Lilly can give assurance that the psychiatrists and
general practitioners that are so quick to hand out this
prescription are aware of all side effects, and information I
passed down to all patients. Thank you.