Eli Lilly Hides Increased Suicidality on Prozac in Controlled Clinical Trials

Eli Lilly Hides Increased Suicidality on Prozac in Controlled Clinical Trials 

In materials gained through discovery in the Wesbecker case, I found in-house documents from Eli Lilly clearly demonstrating an increased rate of suicide attempts in Prozac patients compared to placebo and to tricyclic antidepressants (Breggin, 1994 available on http //www.breggin. com). This was a shocking discovery as Eli Lilly claimed, and continues to claim, that no such data exist. 

Consultants hired by Eli Lilly pruned down the original reports, excluding six of the suicide attempts on Prozac and one on either the comparison drug or placebo. That is, they decided to throw out a substantial portion of the data that reflected badly on their employer s drug. The ratio remained 6 1, and the consultants continued to find a borderline statistically significant (p =. 051) increased rate for suicide attempts among the Prozac patients. 

The blinded data was the only valid data. However, Eli Lilly ran roughshod over science by breaking the blind in providing its new evaluators data indicating what each of the patients were taking when they were found to have attempted suicide. Thus, when evidence-based  

As far as I can ascertain, these extremely important facts and analyses about Prozac-induced suicidality were never submitted to the FDA or in any way made available to the government, the profession, or the public. To the contrary, Eli Lilly has maintained—and continues to maintain— that there is no evidence whatsoever for increased suicidality on Prozac. As an example, Eli Lilly did not make known its analysis of increased suicidality on Prozac at the 1991 FDA conference (FDA, 1991). Nor did they present the Beasley data on increased activation (Beasley, 1988 as for all documents in this section, available on www.breggin.com). 

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