Suicide Attempt Prozac 11/01/1994 Texas Woman Attempts Suicide: Petitions for Warning Labels on Prozac
 
 Summary:<br><br>Paragraph 13 reads:&nbsp; &quot;&quot;<strong>When I informed my doctor of this, I was informed that I had to keep taking Prozac until my body got used to it,&quot; Butler said. &#39;After taking it for one month, I decided one night for no reason to slit my wrist.&#39;&quot;<br /><br /></strong>________________________________________________________________________<br /><strong>Prozac</strong> <strong>targeted</strong> <strong>by</strong> <strong>health</strong> <strong>group</strong>/Warning labels called for <br />Houston Chronicle<br />January 11, 1994<br />Author: MARK SMITH; Staff <br />Estimated printed pages: 2 <br /><img src="../localhost/C_/Program%20Files/Eudora%20Pro/Embedded/20555591.jpg" alt="[]" width="1" height="1" /> <br /><br />DALLAS -- Texas&#39; largest mental <strong>health</strong> consumer organization has petitioned the Texas Department of <strong>Health</strong> to require a &quot;suicide and aggressive behavior&quot; warning on prescription bottles of <strong>Prozac</strong>, one of the nation&#39;s most widely prescribed anti-depressants <br /><br />Texas Mental <strong>Health</strong> Consumers, a nonprofit advocacy <strong>group</strong>, and the Austin-based <strong>group</strong>, Stop Therapy Abuse, said Monday they plan to expand their call for warnings to be placed on other similar drugs.<br /><br />&quot;You shouldn&#39;t have to play Russian roulette with medications,&quot; said Cindy Hopkins, executive director of Texas Mental <strong>Health</strong> Consumers.<br /><br />&quot;These medications may have many adverse reactions that individuals are not warned about <strong>by</strong> their doctor or <strong>by</strong> the labeling on the bottle.&quot;<br /><br />Hopkins said she found it surprising that consumers are warned about possible side effects on other medications -- including possible sun burns from sensitive skin caused <strong>by</strong> use of sulfa drugs -- but not powerful psychoactive drugs.<br /><br />The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received thousands of complaints from doctors and patients, according to Hopkins. Studies published <strong>by</strong> physicians in the The New England Journal of Medicine and The American Journal of Psychiatry also have warned of possible side effects, including thoughts of suicide.<br /><br />Others calling Monday for warning labels included two former <strong>Prozac</strong> users from Houston.<br /><br />Shannon Porter, 17, a high school junior, and Marcy Butler, 45, alleged that <strong>Prozac</strong> had caused them to lose weight, have bad dreams and suffer wide mood swings. Both said they attempted suicide, and they believe the drug contributed to the decision to kill themselves.<br /><br />&quot;I had tried to commit suicide once, seven years before taking <strong>Prozac</strong>,&quot; Porter said. &quot;But after <strong>Prozac</strong>, suicide became an obsession. I could see myself dying.&quot;<br /><br />Porter, who no longer takes any medications, said she has excelled in school after discontinuing use of the drug, garnering honors in a leadership camp and literature <strong>group</strong>.<br /><br />&quot;I know more and more kids are being given <strong>Prozac</strong>, and I know that they are not being warned of what can happen to them,&quot; Porter said. &quot;I would actually like to get <strong>Prozac</strong> banned, but I think a warning would be a good first step.&quot;<br /><br />Butler said her treating physician failed to warn her of any side effects. But soon after she took the drug, Butler said she suffered blurred vision, slurred speech and hot flashes in which she believed her body temperature had jumped.<br /><br />&quot;When I informed my doctor of this, I was informed that I had to keep taking <strong>Prozac</strong> until my body got used to it,&quot; Butler said. &quot;After taking it for one month, I decided one night for no reason to slit my wrist.&quot;<br /><br />Officials with <strong>Prozac</strong>&#39;s Indiana-based manufacturer, Eli Lilly &amp; Co., said their product is safe, having been prescribed to 6 million patients in the United States.<br /><br />&quot;It&#39;s the disease, not the medicine, that causes the problem,&quot; said Ed West, an Eli Lilly spokesman. &quot;It&#39;s understandable that a grieving family member would seek to fix blame to some external cause. But the cause of the disease is depression, not the medications that are saving their lives.&quot;<br /><br />West said his company has refused to comment on the number of adverse reactions linked to <strong>Prozac</strong>, but claimed some 3,000 scientific papers substantiate the company&#39;s claims that <strong>Prozac</strong> is &quot;safe and in fact helps people who have suicide ideation.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Every product has adverse reactions,&quot; West said. However, he said the the U.S. Food and Drug Administration&#39;s advisory committee unanimously voted in 1991 to reject a similar proposal to place a warning label on <strong>Prozac</strong> prescription bottles.<br /><br />&quot;It&#39;s an old issue and had been exposed as a hoax three years ago,&quot; West said <br />Edition:&nbsp; 2 STAR<br />Section:&nbsp; A<strong>; </strong>NEWS<br />Page:&nbsp; 11<br />Index Terms: Texas Metfront<br />Dateline:&nbsp; DALLAS <br />Record Number:&nbsp; HSC01111176879 <br /><br />OpenURL Article Bookmark (right click, and copy the link location):<br /><a href="http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&amp;rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:NewsBank:HCBF&amp;rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&amp;rft_dat=0ED7B324A09ECA47&amp;svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated4&amp;req_dat=0FC00B934DD580D0">Prozac targeted by health group/Warning labels called for</a><br /><br /> 
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