NEAR-FATAL PASSION FOR PROZAC

People with manic depression should be warned not to be sucked in by
Elizabeth Wurtzel's passion for Prozac (Shrug drug that saved my life,
January 21). Most English doctors are likely to know (or to refer to the
BNF and discover) that a common side-effect of Prozac is suicidal ideation,
especially in people with manic depression.

I speak from bitter experience. My month on Prozac, several years ago, gave
me a week of quite disturbing joie de vivre followed by two weeks with a
knife on my wrist. If it hadn't been for my medical training encouraging me
to look for side-effects, I doubt I would be here now.

The suicidal intent Prozac gave me was much stronger than any I have felt
in more than a decade of mood disturbance. I'm coming off Lithium now; it
has been a safe and helpful, albeit fattening, harbour from the storms, but
I'm tired of being excused from life. I've been at Wurtzel's
anti-depressant party for too long.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, time passes and I want to try to do something with my
life, not sit it out on the sidelines with a sick note from the doctor.

J L Trobridge
Nr Leighton Buzzard, Beds