Suicide Celexa/SSRIs 07/06/2002 U.S.A. 14 Year Old Girl Commits Suicide Summary:

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/AC/04/transcripts/4006T1.doc

DR. RUDORFER:  Thank you, sir.

              Could we have speaker 27, please.

                         Lorraine Slater

             MS. SLATER:  Informed parental consent is

   only possible as long as full disclosure is made by

   the pharmaceutical companies, the FDA, and the

   medical community.

             How can you imagine I feel as Dominique's

   mother knowing now that I was slowly poisoning my

   daughter every day as I was dispensing her

   antidepressant medication including Celexa and

   which she made her first suicide attempt after

   being on it for almost one month, and effects of

   the last medication she was on when she did commit

   suicide?

             Yes, Dominique's mind and behavior were

   slowly being altered to the point that she became

   very agitated, irrational, ultimately suicidal,

   because none of the so-called medical professionals

   acknowledged the drug's role in her irrational and
   suicidal behavior or properly withdrew her from

   their suicidal effects.

             Our lovely 14-year-old daughter is dead.

   Dominique has been denied the unalienable right by

   her creator of the pursuit of life, liberty, and

   happiness.  She will no longer be able to pursue

   her dreams of becoming either a computer software

   engineer, computer graphics engineer, or marine

   biologist, and someday an entrepreneur, she had

   hoped.

             Gone, too, is the ability to be able to

   watch Dominique blossom into womanhood, as well as

   motherhood, as she expressed the desire to someday

   have five kids.  Now, we will never have the

   opportunity to continue sharing our lives with

   Dominique, whom we loved and cherished so much.

             She was not only very intelligent,

   humorous, delightful, insightful, and innovative,

   she was also very caring and thoughtful.  Dominique

   had a way of making others feel special and loved.

   She touched so many lives.  For example, Dominique

   made 1,000 paper origami cranes and sent them to

   Governor George Pataki of New York for the first

   anniversary of 9/11.

             It was because of Dominique's very loving
   and genuine nature that around 300 people showed up

   to her memorial service.  They couldn't believe

   that for someone who was so loving and caring, she

   would herself take her own life.

             I submit to you today, ladies and

   gentlemen, that Dominique's life was taken from her

   as a result of drug-induced psychosis and suicidal

   ideations, not to mention the probability of

   experiencing akathisia, extreme agitation.  As a

   14-year-old adolescent, her brain was experiencing

   the second largest growth period, and her hormones

   were unbalanced.

             How can teenagers be allowed to be given

   antidepressants that were never approved for

   adolescent consumption, only for adults?  How come

   the medical profession doesn't fully disclose the

   possible harmful and fatal effects of medication as

   well as watch carefully for diverse effects on its

   adolescent population?

             DR. RUDORFER:  I am sorry that we are out

   of time, but thank you very much.