Woman participating in Lilly trial hangs self

The Indianapolis Star, IndyStar.com ^ | 02/09/2004 | J.K. Wall and John Tuohy

[DeltaZulu]

A toxicology test will determine whether narcotics played a role in the suicide of a 19-year-old woman who was participating in clinical trials for a new drug that Eli Lilly and Co. hopes to launch this year.

Traci Johnson, Bensalem, Pa., hanged herself Saturday night in the Lilly Laboratory for Clinical Research by tying a scarf to a bathroom shower rod, according to the Indianapolis Police Department.

[DeltaZulu]

Another questionable anti-depressant? It's depressing the way the FDA rubber-stamps these things.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Lilly's clinical trial is one that tests "healthy volunteers," who do not have depression or incontinence, in order to evaluate how the human body metabolizes the drug and to examine proper dosages and side effects.

This part makes the death problematic for Lilly.

[KangarooJacqui]

Another questionable anti-depressant? It's depressing the way the FDA rubber-stamps these things.

Damn straight it is. "Oh, this isn't related to the drug because she was getting a placebo at the time of death", a spokesperson for Eli Lilly says.

Nup. Sorry. Doesn't wash with me. I remember being put on Prozac in the early nineties, when it was still quite a new drug in Australia. Nobody told me about the (now well-known) side-effects of taking someone off one of these antidepressants without tapering the dose first...

All I recall is that I sure wasn't suicidal BEFORE going on the drug, but after coming off it, I wanted to slash my wrists/take an overdose/jump off every tall bridge in sight...

Eli Lilly have a LOT to answer for with the drugs they already have on the market. I hope this one doesn't make it that far.

My deep and profound sympathy goes out to the deceased woman's family.

[Bud Krieger]

19 year old girl and she volunteers to be a test subject at a drug company. Hmmmmmmmmm...... I think this will take sometime to sift through.

[Moonman62]

Todd Lappin, the Indianapolis police detective who investigated Johnson's death, said she did not leave a note, making her motive undetermined. "I talked to her friends. They all said, 'She was chipper,' " Lappin said.

From what I've read, suicidal people get very happy once they make the final decision to take the easy way out.

[radiohead]

It's not as bizarre as you may think. My son and I have volunteered for medical testing over the years. I would volunteer for some diabetes drug treatment trials. There was a local ad for HIDS vaccine volunteers. I probably wouldn't do that, no matter how low risk they told me it was.

I will never be a doctor, but I can contribute to science by volunteering. They need both healthy and sick volunteers during the course of the trial. Over the past few years, scientists have found out that some drugs don't react the same on women or on blacks as they do on white men. So, if I can give some researcher twice the knowledge, I'm happy to do it. There are other studies that don't involve medications, but are useful to science nontheless.

Of course, 'volunteer' is a misnomer. You are paid. Depending on the trial, it can be hundreds or thousands of dollars. I'm not surprised a college kid would volunteer for what probably seemed to her to be easy money.

[kaylar]

Traci Johnson, Bensalem, Pa., hanged herself Saturday night in the Lilly Laboratory for Clinical Research by tying a scarf to a bathroom shower rod, according to the Indianapolis Police Department.

Unless that was (A) an awfully tall (and sturdy!) shower rod, or (B) Ms Johnson is extremely short and thin( less than 4'5" and 60lbs), and (C) that was a damn sturdy scarf, I just don't see how she could have commited suicide this way. Unless she didn't so much hang herself as garrotte herself. Most of the shower rods I've seen have been less than 6 feet from the floor, most are not meant to hold 100+ pounds, and most women's scarves are not near as untearable as hemp. As for strangling herself by tying the scarf tightly around the rod and her neck and leaning forward...That would take a lot of determination, and one would think the ligature would go slack when she lost consciousness. I hate to bring up a Conspiracy Theory, but I think the police's scenario stinks.

[Bud Krieger]

My son and I have volunteered for medical testing...

---

How old is your son? If I had a teenage son/daughter( or even college age ), I would not encourage them to do this kind of thing.

There are way to many risks involved that a youger person would not consider. All that risk just to make some easy cash.... Easy - cash, that is a dangerous combination.

[mabarker1]

The docs pass this crap out like Pez candy with the toy dispenser. They don’t tell you what it really is. It’s a feel good wonder drug that’s handed out for general pain relief, be it a broken ankle, cronic diabetic pain aka Neuropathic pain, post surgical pain in just to make it look like they’re not handing out “the dreaded Opioid Crap” aka hydrocodone, oxycodone, and that crap is addiction proven !!!

And the drug companies make it to be just that. One must TAPER dosage to get off of it. I speak from experience on that crap !!!

I and My Doctor spent a year figuring out that I was ok with Morphine and it works better and I can stop taking it and have no issues or problems with withdrawal.

SO FORK YOU BIG PHARMA !!!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Not really.

Lots of collage students agree to be part of drug trials because it pays for not a lot of effort. They are usually young and in good health so they make excellent test subjects.

Now most of them did not test psychiatric medications (we used to have a unkind name for those who did) but with the endless promotion of "everybody is nuts" by social media it seems to be more acceptable now.