http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/AC/prozac/2443T1.PDF

DR. CASEY: Sally Barrett?
MS. BARRETT: My name is Sally Barrett and I am here
with my husband, Al Barrett. We both live in San Diego,
California. We are members of the San Diego chapter of the
Prozac Survivors Support Group. Al and I have traveled many miles to be here before the Pharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee members, to testify before this committee, to tell a story that is very painful and difficult to relate, but a true story that needs to be told.
This story has to do with our youngest daughter,
and our experience with the drug Prozac. On January 25th, 1970 Jenny entered our lives and captured the hearts of
her mom and dad, like her older sister had. She was a child who always did well in school with no pushing from her family. Jenny was a naturally self-motivated young lady and she was an achiever, and she remained so all of her elementary school days and on through high school. She graduated with honors at the top of her class. We always felt she had the greatest talent and potential of anyone in our family.
However, at age 17 she developed an eating disorder
called anorexia. Her doctor placed her on a number of
antidepressants with no positive results. By the end of 1989
her condition had improved and her weight was normal. We wer
much ‘encouraged by this change. In January, 1990, however,
she was placed on the antidepressant Prozac. Several weeks
later she took an overdose, which was her

first suicide attempt. Jennifer herself could not understand why she would
do such a thing, nor did we. For the next four or five months
after she was taken off of this drug she did not talk about
suicide nor attempt it. However, she was heavily sedated
under the effects of another drug, called enafranil and she was then placed on Prozac to counteract the effects o
enafranil. The doctor said she had never prescribed this
combination before. Her evaluation of Jennifer was that she
was mildly depressed. This occurred in July of 1990.
In 1990, after starting Prozac, Jenny’s behavior
became more agitated and aggressive and hostile. Jenny

started having terrorizing nightmares, frightening the whole
family with her outcries. Jenny’s behavior began to change
dramatically and drastically. She started shoplifting in the
stores, a strange and unusual act which we could not
understand, especially since she had quite enough money to
make the purchases herself.
It was at this time that she began spending money
wildly and impulsively. She began overeating at this time and gained 75 pounds. The second time that she was placed on Prozac she secretly
purchased a gun on August 25 and shot herself in the head and
died on August 27.
Since Jenny’s death we have been trying to
rationalize and understand how and why this happened. Jenny
was a happy girl and an honors student and she had many
friends. As we tried to put the sequence of this bizarre
chain of events together, we realized that the change in our
daughter’s behavior occurred after Jenny started taking the
drug Prozac.
Are we not entitled to an educated,
and informed choice when we take such powerful
and mind-altering drugs as these? If we had been fully
informed, we would never have allowed our daughter and our

loved one to use this drug.
I believe anyone who knows the truth about the risk:
involved would come to the same conclusion we have, that it
just is not worth the risk. I really wonder what is happening
in the United States when human life, our most precious
commodity, is expendable in the pursuit of corporate profit
and greed. I think it is time for America’s most vulnerable
citizens to stop being used as uninformed guinea pigs for Eli
Lilly’s wonder drug.
I respectfully request that this drug be taken off
the market so that no other child or family will suffer the
loss and the devastation that we have. Thank you for your
time and attention to this most important matter.

Al and I received a death sentence for life, too,
but our sentence is for the rest of our lives. Eli Lilly
murdered my soul with the drug. Now we are facing a life
sentence without Jenny here to share it with us. Thank you.