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In Reply to: From Eli Lilly's subpoened internal records posted by Daniel on February 16, 2006 at 20:07:07:
You wrote:
"During a murder/suicide trial Eli Lilly's internal records revealed considerable awareness of prozac causing suicide within the companies internal memos and research. "A letter sent to it from the British Committee on Safety of Medicines in 1984 reads: 'During the treatment with [Prozac] 16 suicide attempts were made, two of these with success. As patients with a risk of suicide were excluded from the studies, it is probable that this high proportion can be attributed to an action of the preparation.'"
What does it mean to exclude a patient with "risk of suicide" from the study? Does that mean the person reported NO suicidal ideation at the time s/he began the clinical trial with Prozac? Does that mean the person NEVER had suicidal ideation at any time in their life? Exactly what did the researcher do to control the study population for "risk of suicide"?
As I noted earlier, the number of people with major depressive disorder who have never had suicidal thoughts are few and far between. There are milder forms of depression, such as dysthymia, where an individual is less likely to have suicidal ideation, yet have other depressive symptoms. I personally do not believe milder forms of depression should be treated with SSRIs, and that is where you & I may be in some agreement. Exercise, cognitive/behavioral therapy, and better stress management can do as much as a pill where mild depression is concerned, and there is research that supports my claim.
The key variables at stake are severity of the symptoms and level of impairment from the depressive disorder. That's why I asked what the Prozac researcher did to control for symptom severity and impairment. For individuals with suicidal ideation to be excluded from the study suggests the research population did not meet clinical criteria for an SSRI in the first place.
