Dr. Peter R. Breggin, author of Talking Back to Prozac, is severely critical of
SSRIs. The Bethesda, Md. psychiatrist has testified as a medical expert in
several murder cases during which SSRIs were implicated in the crimes. [table]


One of these cases involved a 16-year-old bomber, another a man who shot himself
after killing a large number of his coworkers.


Following the Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colo., Breggin
announced to the press that one of the young killers, Eric Harris, had been
taking the SSRI known as Luvox. Breggin notes that Luvox's manufacturer, Solvay,
has acknowledged that during short-term controlled clinical trials, 4 percent of
children and teens taking Luvox "developed mania, which is defined as a psychosis
which can produce bizarre, grandiose, highly elaborated destructive plans,
including mass murder."

Another school shooter, Oregon's Kip Kinkel, was taking Prozac.

Calling Prozac "worthless," Breggin has publicly lambasted the Eli Lilly company
in Indianapolis, Ind., which makes it. He says clinical tests performed on the
drug before it was offered to the general public lasted only four to six weeks
and thus were too short, he believes, to reveal long-term effects.

"These drugs," he warns of SSRIs, "produce irritability, aggression or hostility,
alienation, agitation, and loss of empathy."

Breggin offers these criticisms of the Eli Lilly company, which makes Prozac:

The tests on the medication before it was offered to the general public were too
short, lasting only four to six weeks.

These tests did not include children, the elderly or the suicidal.

Many patients dropped out of the tests immediately upon experiencing adverse
reactions to the drug.

Patients were given sedatives to counteract Prozac's stimulating effects.

Fewer than one in three of the trials showed Prozac to be effective.