Context

Chapters 2 and 3 of Let Them Eat Prozac offer an introduction to the SSRI antidepressants, to the pharmaceutical companies that made them and to the emergence of the Prozac and Suicide controversy. These chapters are supplemented by the minutes of the Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee meetings that recommended the licensing of Prozac and Zoloft, and first considered the issue of Prozac and suicide.

The Trials

Here can be found the transcripts of the trials and the expert witnesses depositions.

Fentress et al v Shea Communications et al.
This was the trial following the murder spree of Joseph Wesbecker at his place of work in Louisville, Kentucky, which led to the death of 8 employees at the Standard Gravure plant there followed by his own suicide. Wesbecker had been on Prozac. An account of the legal manoeuvrings before, during and after the trial can be found in Chapter 4 of Let Them Eat Prozac.

Forsyth v Eli Lilly and Company
After 10 days on Prozac, William Forsyth stabbed his wife, June, 15 times before impaling himself on a serrated kitchen knife up on a chair. The remaining Forsyth family took out an action against Eli Lilly, the makers of Prozac. See Chapters 5 and 7 of Let Them Eat Prozac.

Tobin v SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals
With a prior history of a poor response to an SSRI, Don Schell was put on Paxil. Forty-eight hours later he put three bullets from two different guns through his wife, Rita’s, head, as well as through his daughter, Deborah’s, head and through his granddaughter, Alyssa’s, head before shooting himself through the head. See Chapter 10 of Let Them Eat Prozac.

Critical Documents
A number of key exhibits from the Fentress and Forsyth cases as well as other documents relating to Zoloft and Paxil are available here.

The Editors’ Dilemma

This section looks at the difficulties of bringing the SSRI issues to light. Raising the issues with the editors of the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the British Medical Journal and the Lancet has produced an interesting correspondence. The relevant articles, reviews and correspondence are posted here. No criticism of Richard Smith or Richard Horton should be inferred as they are among the ‘good guys’, although clearly David Nutt sets the standard for all other editors to aspire to. There is relevant background material in chapter 5 and chapter 8 in Let Them Eat Prozac.

Medicine Control Agency

At the end of 1999, a three-year correspondence with the regulators in the United Kingdom and the Department of Health in the United Kingdom on the hazards of Prozac and other SSRIs began, which led to a meeting in November 2002.

Ghostly Data

There are four strands to this section, with background in chapter 6 of Let Them Eat Prozac.

Firstly: Ghost writing of scientific articles has probably always happened to some extent. In the course of the 1980s with the vast increase in the number of company sponsored satellite symposia and the emergence of a journal supplement business, ghost writing almost certainly became commoner. We give details.

Secondly: A section on missing data: ‘…..the interest in this paper lies in the set of missing figures for suicidal acts for Lilly’s antipsychotic Zyprexa ….’

Thirdly: In addition to the difficulties in raising hazards in either academic forums or with regulatory authorities there are the problems of pharmaceutical company actions to close down debate. In April of 2000 a book was published – Prozac Backlash. Both Newsday New York and the Boston Globe in Boston received unsolicited reviews of this book from Lilly’s public relations agencies in New York and Boston, Chamberlain Communications Group and Rasky Baerlein respectively.

Fourth: This section contains specific examples of the ghost writing process, involving two articles in two different journals.

Academic Freedom

The SSRI story collides with a case that has raised concerns about academic freedom. Following a lecture, which parenthetically noted the existence of a controversy about Prozac, I had a job contract with the University of Toronto withdrawn. See Chapter 10 of Let Them Eat Prozac. The contents of the lecture and the associated correspondence are reproduced here.

Academic Stalking

One of the consequences of taking a stand on an academic issue that has commercial implications seems to be ongoing academic harassment or stalking.