Feb 12, 2004

A 19-year-old college student with no known history of mental illness has committed suicide while participating in clinical trials of a new antidepressant, The New York Times reports.

Traci Johnson was among 25 patients at an Eli Lilly clinic in Indianapolis who had been administered duloxetine, which would be marketed as Cymbalta if it were to win approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Four days before she died, she was taken off Cymbalta and given a placebo, the Times reports.

Since her death, roughly one-fifth of the volunteers have dropped out of the trial, the Associated Press reports.

Johnson's death is sure to inflame the already heated debate over whether antidepressants can increase suicidal tendencies among young people with certain genetic profiles. Four other patients who were given the drug during earlier trials also committed suicide, the company tells the newspaper.

Johnson's death last weekend came less than a week after an FDA advisory panel recommended stronger warning labels advising doctors that this class of antidepressants -- selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) -- may be linked to suicide and violent behavior among some children and teens.