European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 21, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 b the stars and stripes saturday september 21, 1991drug prozac on trial As killer or Lifesaver Washington apr dozens of former prozac users told a food and drug administration advisory panel Friday that the nations most widely prescribed anti dip Russant Sparks suicidal impulses and should be taken off the Market. But a raft of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals countered them at the hearing with claims that scientific studies have failed to show prozac causes violent behaviour and that unwarranted hysteria Over the drug is being fanned Only by anecdotal evidence. Pallie Carnes the director of the prozac survivors support group in Covington ga., described the a terrifying nightmares Quot headaches forgetfulness and anxiety that she fell three Days after she started using prozac for weight loss. During that period she said she tried to kill herself with a gun but her husband stopped her before she could pull the trigger. She was on the drug for three weeks. All the symptoms disappeared when she slopped she said. A i was a different person on prozac. I was a Zombie. Pm a different person now a she said. A Why is it so hard to admit a mistake was made a in approving prozac Many others told the committee of suicide attempts they or family members made while on prozac and some told of loved ones who had died a allegedly As a result of the drug. Prozac made by Eli Lilly amp co. Of Indianapolis went on the Market in 19x7 for treatment of depression. It has been prescribed for More than 3 million people in the United states and 5 million worldwide the company said. The Fra in july denied a petition by the citizens commission on human rights to remove prozac from the Market because of its alleged risk of suicide and violent behaviour. The group is affiliated with the Church of scientology which Long has been at Odds with the psychiatric Community. The Fra said it found no data to support the groups claims that prozac was linked to suicide violent behaviour and movement disorders or that it was addictive. But the Agency said that in the interest of continuing to assess new information it would ask an advisory panel of outside experts to consider whether suicide is associated with anti depressant drugs including prozac. Susan dime Meenan executive director of the National depressive and manic depressive association testified Friday that she owes her life to prozac. Dime Meenan said there is no scientific evidence to support any of the claims against prozac. John a. Smith Deputy executive director of the National mental health association testified that 15 percent of untreated depressed patients commit suicide and depression is a major cause of suicide. The advisory panel expected to take Public testimony before hearing from the Fra and the drug s manufacturer. The meeting was being held at the of Day a Headquarters in Rockville md., under heavy Security measures which Are unusual for advisory committee meetings. Fra Security officials said they had reason to believe that nearly 500 demonstrators were going to show up but Only about 20 people picketed outside. The widow of Singer Del Shannon joining the demonstrators blamed her husbands suicide in february 1990 on prozac. A the d still be alive today if he Hadnot taken it a said Leanne Westover 37. A study released thursday in the British medical journal Analysed information on 3,065 patients in prozac clinical trials and found no increase in suicides attempted suicides or suicide ideas in patients taking the drug. The Fra has received at least 14,100 reports of Adverse reactions related to prozac since it was approved four years ago More than it has received for any other drug spokeswoman Eva Kemper said. The reactions Range from headaches to suicides she said. The citizens commission on human rights said it has identified More than 280 suicides and homicides associated with people on prozac. The consumer group Public citizen also has been concerned about prozac. It has asked the Fra to require warning labels stating that the drug May cause intense and violent suicidal impulses in some patients. But mental health professionals said the Labelling would be unnecessarily alarmist. Russian prime minister loses Confidence vote record Holder has checkup Craig Shergold 12, holds a news conference with his parents Marion and Ernie Sher Gold at the University or Virginia medical Center in Charlottesville on thursday. The family who is from England is visiting doctors for a checkup alter Craig a recent surgery for a brain tumor. The boy holds the guinness Book of world records entry As the recipient of the most get Well cards with More than 33 million. Moscow apr russian prime minister Ivan Ilayev newly chosen to run the whole soviet Economy suffered a defeat Friday in his own parliament when lawmakers voted no Confidence in his programs to Supply food and Deal with the economic crisis. Deputies voted 134 to 19 with five abstentions to adopt a Resolution declaring As a a unsatisfactory a Ilayev a governments actions to revive agriculture and master the economic crisis. The Resolution also urged russian federation president Boris n. Yeltsin to review the makeup of his government and dismiss officials who had performed poorly. Russian deputies rejected wording that would have made the Resolution a no Confidence vote on the governments performance As a whole. The votes followed a pessimistic speech thursday by Deputy russian prime minister Oleg Lobov who said Oil production in the Republic was Down 51 percent from last year leaving the government Short of hard currency for needed imports such As Grain. Fridays vote was a blow for Ilayev who said wednesday he will quit As russian prime minister once a new National Council is formed to manage the chaotic soviet Economy. He has been appointed to head the inter Republic economic committee a new governing Structure proposed in the Wake of the failed aug. 18-21 coup. Lobov said that Industrial production As a whole fell 3.8 percent for the first eight months of the year from the same period in 1990. He predicted the Grain crop would total Between 95 million and 96 million tons which he deemed average for the past 10 years. . Officials have forecast that the soviet Grain Harvest will be 40 million tons Down from last years bumper 235 million tons. Even with that crop Consumers had to line up for Basic foods All last Winter. A key problem is that Farmers Are unwilling to sell Grain to the state because of Low prices and galloping inflation. Ilayev suggested in an interview this week that private producers be Given incentives by offering to store their Grain in empty state silos and giving them 10 percent extra either in seeds or Cash if they keep it there for six months. Ilayev appeared to be suggesting the state would try to get by on those supplies until it receives enough foreign Aid or hard currency to Purchase Grain abroad. Dmitri Vasilyev a lawmaker from the Samara Region on the Volga River proposed a vote of no Confidence in the government As a whole. He criticized Lobov for what he termed an administrative approach to the  on masculinity muddles Ideal Man new York up a flip Ideal american Man is witty if wimpy looks up to actor glint Eastwood and would choose to feed the poor rather than buy a baseball team if he had an extra $ 100 million. That finding was revealed thursday in a poll that examines the state of masculinity conducted by Esquire Magazine of 1,001 randomly selected men. The results appear in the october Issue. The polls findings Are somewhat contradictory. According to the poll most men claim that they do 40 percent of household and child rearing chores would rather marry television personality Jane Pauley than Singer Mariah Carey and would rather he considered witty but wimpy than sexy but dumb. At least one researcher who studied the comments said the menus responses seemed contradictory. When asked to qualify their most admired Quali ties. 87,6 percent said they would rather a woman thought of them As witty but mild rather than sexy but unintelligent which garnered 11.3 percent of respondents. But when asked for their role models they chose brawn Over brain. Seventy percent chose Eastwood and 27 percent chose actor director Woody Allen and 58.2 percent chose he Man actor Steven Seagal Over consumer advocate Ralph Nader who got 35.9 percent of the vote. I he Only noticeable pattern of responses is one of contradiction and inconsistency Quot said psychologist la Coberl Rappaport a professor at Temple University. The Tirol annual Survey on menus attitudes was conducted for the Magazine by Beta research corp. The poll also found 51.8 percent of the polls participants would rather marry Pauley than Carey and 58.8 percent said television journalist Connie Chung was Likely to he wild in bed but Only 32.2 thought the same about another to news personality Diane Sawyer. The Survey also showed that most men feel that a Man should a a ideally make love to at least 18 women in a lifetime with More than 49.5 percent saying they had made love to More than that number and 48.5 percent saying they had gone to bed with fewer than 18. But on the health front 69 percent said that if they had a spare $100 million they would feed the poor rather than buy a baseball team. Of those surveyed 58.9 percent believe they Are better mates than their fathers were while 43.3 percent believe they Are better fathers than their dads. Of those surveyed 26.4 percent were not fathers themselves it said. And 68.7 percent prefer to he thought of As too easygoing rather than too aggressive while 65.7 percent would rather teach their sons How to handle themselves in a fistfight than to appreciate poetry