From: goehring@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Scott Goehring)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Re: Scientologists and Prozac
Message-ID: <GOEHRING.91Sep2084930@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 2 Sep 91 13:49:30 GMT
References: <1991Sep2.001258.27664@cco.caltech.edu>
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Reply-To: goehring@mentor.cc.purdue.edu
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In-reply-to: rmm@baldwin.ipac.caltech.edu's message of 2 Sep 91 00:12:58 GMT

In article <1991Sep2.001258.27664@cco.caltech.edu>, rmm@baldwin.ipac.caltech.edu (Mike Melnyk) writes:

[aside:  please don't create new threads by following up to an
 existing article and changing the subject; or at least if you do,
 please delete the References: line]

>I was talking with a friend of mine about Prozac, a new
>anti-depressant that has helped a number of people. He knows quite a
>lot about psychiatric drugs; he claims that Prozac has gotten a bad
>reputation lately due to a smear campaign by the Scientologists.

>As I recall,=20the claim made (not necessarily by Scientologists) is
>that some who have taken Prozac have died as a result, i.e., Prozac
>is directly responsible for their deaths, therefore Prozac should be
>taken off the market. Another friend told me that the medical
>literature that comes with the medicine includes a rebuttal of sorts:
>two people have died, but one person who died took something like 10
>- 100 the recommended dosage, while the other had quite a lot to
>drink (in general, anti-depressants and alcohol together is a no-no).
>Thus my bias is that is not as dangerous as rumors suggest.

The claims you refer to were made by the CCHR (see below) in a
complaint filed with the FDA requesting that Eli Lilly's license to
produce and market be suspended.  The FDA held that, since depressive
persons are often suicidal anyway, there is no evidence that the
medication caused the suicides; rather, in fact, it was the FDA's
conclusion that the suicides were due to patients who either received
insufficient dosages (thereby insufficiently ameliorating their
depression) or who failed to take the pills (with the same effect).

This story was covered rather heavily in my home town, as Eli Lilly is
headquartered here in Indianapolis, and is one of the largest
employers in the state.  (N.B. I do not work for Eli Lilly, and have
no affiliation with it in any way)

>My questions to all follow:

>(1) Have the Scientologists mounted a campaign against Prozac?

Yes, through their puppet, the "Citizen's Commission on Human Rights"
(CCHR).  Scientology has many puppet organizations so that they might
act without it being known that Scientology is behind the activities.

>(2) If so, why? 

As part of their ongoing campaign to totally eliminate modern
psychological practices.  Scientology believes that dianetic therapy
is capable of curing all the ills that modern psychology is
endeavoring to cure, and furthermore believes that the practice of
psychology is universally harmful.  Therefore it is necessary for them
to attack all institutions of psychology, psychiatry, and
psychopharmacology whenever possible.

>(3) What is the church's opinion on modern psychiatric methods?  (I
>know there's no consensus among psychiatrists on how to treat
>neurosis, personality disorders, etc., but what, if anything, do the
>Scientologists object to?)

The Church objects to the following practices of the psychological
arts: shock therapy, mutilative brain surgery, drug therapy, hypnosis.
There are probably others but it has been a while since I read any of
their literature on the subject, and my copy of _Dianetics_ has
relatively little to say on the subject, at least as far as the index
shows; Hubbard's writing is somewhat disjoint so there may be
references I have missed that are not indexed, and I haven't the time
right now to search the entire tome for references.

N.B.  I am not affiliated with the Church, nor do I claim to be an
      authority on the subject.  However, I believe the abovementioned
      information to be reasonably accurate.
--
It's because you...piss...me...off.  --  Russ Smith, in rec.games.mud,
					 said to Bruce Woodcock