February, 1990, Dr. Martin Teicher, a psychiatrist at the highly regarded McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., and two of his colleagues reported that six depressed patients began to have suicidal thoughts after using Prozac. Writing in The American Journal of Psychiatry, Teicher said that when they began taking the drug, none of the six patients were suicidal and all were "hopeful and optimistic" about the treatment. After that, a sudden flow of reports told of violence and suicide among Prozac users. And the drug acquired a tenacious enemy in the Los Angeles-based Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which has ties to the Church of Scientology, a movement that, amongst other things, opposes some aspects of psychiatry. The Scientologists claim that by September 16, 1993, no fewer than 1,089 suicides had been recorded among patients taking the capsule. If that figure is correct, than it works out to be about .01 percent of the 11 million people who have used the drug (Nichols, 3). Dr. Lorne Brandes, A Winnipeg cancer researcher, claims to have evidence that Prozac may promote the growth of cancerous tumors. "I'm very concerned about Prozac," says Brandes, who reported in 1992 that rats and mice with artificially induced cancer showed an increased rate of tumor growth when they were given Prozac and another antidepressant not mentioned. Brandes's findings alarmed some cancer researchers and prompted federal scientists to launch similar studies (Nichols, 1). Although Prozac has fewer side effects than earlier antidepressants, it does have some. Users may experience nausea, nervousness and insomnia, and their sex lives may suffer some: a U.S. study, published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, found that among 160 patients on Prozac, 54 reported that sexual desires or responses diminished after they began taking the drug (1).Sidney Wolfe, director of the Public Citizen Health Research Group, a Washington based consumer advocacy o...
