Amy Coburn — (FDA HEARINGS 2004)

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FDA HEARINGS 2004:

PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGIC DRUGS ADVISORY COMMITTEE WITH THE PEDIATRIC SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE ANTI-INFECTIVE DRUGS ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Monday, February 2, 2004

Hi.  My name is Amy Coburn.   I have flown here from Salt Lake City, Utah, at my own expense.

I am here on behalf of my father, myself, and my family.  My father’s name was Wayne Coburn.

Most people remember him as a man full of life and willing to help anyone in need.    I remember my dad as a man who loved his family very much and was very loved in return, a
man full of ideas and hope for the future, but like many people, he found he got a little down in the wintertime.  He was diagnosed with seasonal depression without suicidal tendencies.
When I was 13 years old, he was put on Paxil.

Three weeks later he pulled his car into an old factory garage, started his engine, and there waited until he died of carbon monoxide poisoning.  This naturally shocked me and my family
and we all had a hard time coping with his death.I started going to a counselor to work through my grief, and I was put on Paxil, the same drug my father was on.   I started acting differently, then very soon after I started having suicidal thoughts, mood swings, I was fighting with my friends, and the one thing my mom noticed is that I wouldn’t talk about how I was feeling.  The only thing she could get out of me was “I am fine, leave me alone.”

Six weeks after I was put on the drug, I stayed home from school, wrote my good-bye letters, and swallowed a cupful of poisonous bathroom cleaner.  I immediately got scared and ran to my neighbor’s house.  She called 911 and luckily I survived and I am standing here today.

We soon found out that we weren’t the only ones who had problems with these drugs.  Hundreds of families have lost people they love because they had no idea of the effect they could have on a person’s mind.  All me and my family want are warnings on these drugs.