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

Bonnie Leitsch?

MS. LEITSCH: I am the National Director for the

Prozac Survivors Support Group, an organization consisting of

Prozac survivors and the families of people who did not

survive. I personally have interviewed and talked with over

400 people who have been prescribed Prozac for various

reasons, for weight loss, to stop smoking,

the same. They are free of suicide before taking Prozac

and the scenario is they go on the doctor nd when they are on the drug they become suicidal. They go

off the drug and they are no longer suicidal. Well, I’m not

a doctor, but I wouldn’t think you would have to be a mental

heavyweight to soon figure that Prozac played a part in the

suicidal ideations.

Doctors say that this problem with Prozac, all that

is needed is for this drug to be monitored. But what I’d lik

to know is how do you monitor a patient when suddenly and

without warning they try to take their lives? Such as the

woman in North Carolina who was cooking supper, had a load of

clothes in the washer and dryer, no indication that she was

going to commit suicide but, indeed, she did. She hanged

herself with a belt in the middle of cooking supper. Now how

can you monitor that?

Likewise the man in Arizona, laid out his

medication for the day, played gin rummy with his wife, made

plans for the day, and while she was taking a shower he killed

himself. How do you monitor that?

And myself, my own case. I was making icing for a

Father’s Day cake when suddenly, without warning, it seemed

like a swell idea to kill myself. Did I consider the

consequences of that? No. Did I shoot myself? No, because

a gun wasn't handy. Had it been handy, I'm sure I would have

done that. I was, however, dead on arrival to the hospital.

Had it not been for the emergency team, I would not be here
What I’m curious about is the people who seem to

think it’s perfectly okay to have this drug on the market are

people who have a vested interest. I question why this is

happening. Well, we know it’s impossible for the doctors to

monitor these patients, because if they had, there would not

have been 800 suicides, 500 deaths associated with this drug.

And if all of this isn’t tragic enough, we are

referred to as anecdotal. What does that mean? Does that

mean that the people that died on this drug are not equally as

dead? Does it mean that Sally Padoor, who’s grieving the loss of

her son, is not just as grieved? I think not. What that

really means is that we were not in the paid-for studies of

Eli Lilly. We are the real people. Anecdotal are the real

people. This is the people that you have unleashed this drug

on.

The FDA responsibility -- now, maybe we need to mak,J

this a little more clear -- is to protect the general public,

not to stuff money into doctors’ and into Eli Lilly’s pocket

at the expense of the general public. How dare you? You wer

put here to protect us. We are the general public. And who

said it’s okay, who in the world said it is okay to kill one

person so that another feels better? Who gives anyone here

that right?

Where in this country is it all right for you to say

it only kills 3.5 percent? Gentlemen, if you want to be that

3.5 percent, fine, have at it. But the general public does

not want to be that 3.5 percent.

DR. CASEY: ,Thank you.