Jurors in Boy's Murder Trial Consider if Zoloft Is to Blame

[truthpusher]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/15/national/15zoloft.html

Jurors in Boy's Murder Trial Consider if Zoloft Is to Blame
By SHAILA DEWAN

Published: February 15, 2005


Pool photo by Wade Spees
Christopher Pittman shot his grandparents when he was 12.

HARLESTON, S.C., Feb. 14 - A teenager on trial for killing his grandparents when he was 12 and taking the antidepressant Zoloft can be found not guilty of murder if he was "involuntarily intoxicated" by the drug, a judge told jurors after closing arguments Monday, offering them an option to acquit him without finding him insane.

The teenager, Christopher Pittman, now 15, confessed to the killings, but his lawyers have argued that Zoloft made him manic and violent. After shooting his grandparents, Joe and Joy Pittman, in their bed, he set fire to the house and fled in their car, then claimed to have been kidnapped. Prosecutors say the boy's actions prove that he was aware that what he had done was wrong.

He later said of his grandparents, who had taken him in when he was having trouble at home, "I'm not sorry. They deserved it," according to his confession to investigators presented during the two-week trial.

Defense arguments that blame antidepressants have been used in cases with varying success, but the Pittman case has received particular attention because of the defendant's youth. Last October, three years after the death of the Pittmans and in the midst of a storm of controversy over the effects of antidepressants on children and adolescents, the Federal Drug Administration said that all antidepressants must carry a warning of an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior for young patients.

complete story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/15/national/15zoloft.html

[still_one]

1. just maybe it was an incompentent psychiatrist

who didn't recognize that his patient couldn't distinguish reality, so lets blame it on a drug company

[screembloodymurder]

28. You might want to search tranquilizers and rage

before you make any snap judgments. There is a great deal of evidence supporting a connection between the drugs and extreme rage in individuals with no history of violent behavior. I know, I was one of them.

[glarius]

2. Why is this boy being tried as an adult for what he did when he was 12?

That's what bothers me...How can that be justice?....He's 15 now but was 12 at the time of the killings....

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

29. It's heartbreaking. I cannot understand our society anymore.

I have two teenage sons, and 12 years old is still a baby in so many ways. To imprison a 15 year old for 30 years is insanity.

[Placebo]

3. I hope this boy is found innocent.

He doesn't seem like a natural born killer to me.

[flordehinojos]

4. oh, yeah! blame the medication for the illness ...

[asjr]

6. Some medications act differently. I was on Zoloft

for a while and it completely changed my personality. For the first time in my life I became a bitch. No one around me could stand me. I got off that in a hurry. A friend of mine was on it and came close to snuffing out her life. It probably works on everyone else. I would not want to be on that jury.

[Sugarbleus]

7. You are right that meds react differently on each person BUT

fundamentally, no one taking these types of meds would MURDER anyone unless they were terribly unbalanced/disturbed to begin with. In that case, perhaps the kid didn't get the right diagnosis or the right p.doc.

I've taken Zoloft and it put me to sleep. Paxil made me feel like I was on LSD, Prozac worked for years but made me too anxious. Now I use Lexapro and another med for anxiety. While I could get snippy and anxious on one drug--prozac...........IT NEVER MADE ME WANT TO KILL ANYONE. Feel the need to smack somebody maybe ;), but not murder.

Ultimately, I do hope they go easy on this kid. He obviously didn't get the appropriate diagnosis or care that he needed if the end result was murdering his grandparents. Yikes, I'M raising MY grandson.

[Ms_Mary]

14. The effects are different in children. Remember the relatively recent

coverage about antidepressants causing children to have suicidal thoughts?

I'm not saying that WAS the cause here, only that it has been documented (way too late) that antidepressant meds have unanticipated mental side effects in children. It's a serious matter, especially since the number of children on these drugs has been growing dramatically in recent years.

[sybylla]

15. Heard a doctor talk about this case recently

He said these drugs definitely do act differently in children. He said that adults who have experience with the fact that drugs can have a negative effect on them recognize that the bad feelings they have may be caused by the drug and stop taking it. A 12-year-old lacks that experience and may not have realized what the drug was doing to him. If he didn't realize it, he couldn't have asked to stop.

The doctor also said Zoloft stops the production of a chemical in the brain. It takes several weeks of adjustments to compensate for the decreasing production, if not months. If the doctor was careless in proscribing it, incorrect dosage could certainly have had such a negative effect on his personality.

Lastly, the doctor said everyone responds to drugs a little differently. Everyone experiences side effects to differing degrees. It may also be that this boy had a serious reaction to the medication.

I won't presume that the boy is a monster that deserves to be caged for the rest of his life without further evidence. I don't think any 12-year-old is disposable. Even if he committed these horrible acts with malice, this child needs help, not a prison cot next to Bubba.

[Sugarbleus]

22. I don't think I would suggest putting very young children on

psychotropics but certainly we know that ADD is treated in the very young EXTEMELY troubled groups. I don't like the idea of drugging all the children just because they are rambunctious and energetic...many kids will grow out of that some day anyway.

But there ARE cases where some intervention truly is needed and should be available.

I think my concern is that people with mood or mental health disorders aren't being treated PROPERLY or by TRAINED P.Docs. A regular MD cannot possibly make those choices for families.

Unfortunately, unless one has a fabulous, private healthcare plan, oft times parents cannot get access to proper testing and treatment. In my own area, those who are low income for example...using state insurance are NOT allowed to see a shrink at the local community mental health facility. A person (or child) has to do something HORRENDOUS first, or have an OBVIOUSLY serious mental health condition like Schizophrenia in order to see a trained professional. It's an abominable policy.

Seems like we'd like all people to have access to Whole Health at an early stage..........before there is a serious irreversible problem.

Anti-depressants does affect one's mood and if they aren't monitored properly or prescribed effectively...they won't work and could create the wrong results especially in children. I agree that caution is strongly advisable when dealing with underage persons.

But I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water here either. New medicines are being developed all the time (if we could just AFFORD THEM!). I wish they had some of these newer ones waaaaaaaaay back decades ago.
Children that have been deeply hurt by something or born with some genetic lack can be in DIRE need of close psychiatric help and/or medicines. Surely we've all heard the stories of young people/children who simply CANNOT ADJUST. Who are violent, who harm themselves etc.

:hi:

[laylah]

26. I've been on Zoloft

off and on for over 10 years. It is my friend :smile: I have never had the urge to maim, kill, or burn anyone/thing. That said, I believe our reactions to different meds depend upon individual chemical makeup. As for kids taking these drugs, I am completely against it! No research or testing was done on children, only adults, when these drugs were first created. I liken drugging our kids to make the "manageable" to what is done to the elderly in nursing homes, for the same (wrong!) reasons.

Jenn

[laylah]

27. I've been on Zoloft

off and on for over 10 years. It is my friend :P . I have never had the urge to maim, kill, or burn anyone/thing. That said, I believe our reactions to different meds depend upon individual chemical makeup. As for kids taking these drugs, I am completely against it! No research or testing was done on children, only adults, when these drugs were first created. I liken drugging our kids to make the "manageable" to what is done to the elderly in nursing homes, for the same (wrong!) reasons.

I do not believe this boy should be tried as an adult; however, methinks another "twinkie defense" has been created.

Jenn

[genieroze]

5. Just think, * wants everyone especially children tested for mental

illness. Then we can have a whole country of kids,teens and adults medicated on this crap. Yahoo.

[Sugarbleus]

8. I don't like "Bush's Plan" but I wouldn't call medicines for

mental illness CRAP...thank you very much.

[genieroze]

20. When it's given and the side effects are know to be harmful, it's crap.

When it's given out like candy, it's crap. When it's being pushed by the Presidunce who is in the pockets of these drug companies, it's crap. When it's given under careful observation by a competent physician who was sought after by the patient for his/her problems then it's medicine. Canada knows Zoloft is crap, why don't we?

[Sugarbleus]

23. ???

Canada ?? I just told you, I've taken Zoloft. It is a life saver for many people. It doesn't CURE anything..it merely helps.

It's people with this "kind of mindset" that are harming others with their predjudice towards the Mental Health field.

I only WISH there had been medicines available TO ME decades ago; perhaps I'd have done much better in life. My entire extended family suffers from one sort of mood or nervous/mental health condition. They to would have benefitted greatly had the COMMUNITY NOT PUT A STIGMA ON THE SCIENCE. Instead, we put "wacky"/"troubled" people IN PRISON AND "Nut Houses" to ROT.

I'm offended at the callousness and ignorance of the reply!! Perhaps somebody "needs" a chill pill themselves???

[depakid]

9. Seems to me that there's plenty of blame to go around

Christopher's story highlights the difficulty of isolating the effect of psychoactive drugs on already troubled patients.

There's no question that SSRI's like zoloft or paxil can (and do) make people manic- and there's no question that there's an attributable risk of suicidal bahavior linked to some of the SSRI's. That's well documented in the scientific literature.

Combine that with an already pathologically disturbed kid of 12, and you're going to get some cases like this.

The fact that a 12 year old could face 30 years to life under these cirumstances, well- as Nick Nolte said in Prince of Tides, "that's what I like about the South...."

[REP]

10. Suicide - Yes; Murder - NO

There has not been any cases of any SSRI 'forcing' anyone to commit murder, burn down a house to cover the crimes, take the dog with him and deny he did it (or any other murder, for that matter).

I think 30 years is very lenient for double homicide.

On edit - if Zoloft is to blame, what accounts for his acts of violence before he started taking the drug? Unfortunately, this was a child who should have been institutionalized, but due to those nifty Reagan reforms, was at best poorly managed with inappropriate drugs.

[depakid]

17. I don't suppose it's pointless to try

to discuss the etiology of childhood mental disturbances, the phisiological stages of cognitive development or "quaint" elements of criminal law like "mens rea," so I'll just note that SSRI's like zoloft have been known to cause what's known as "activation" in adults which has led to documented instances of violent behavior.

If it can happen in adults, then imagine what it might do to an abused 12 year old.

[Ms_Mary]

18. They can cause manic episodes in bipolar people too, can't they?

I could be wrong but it seems like I've heard that.

[depakid]

19. Yes, and it is not all that uncommon

People who present as depressed may in fact "be" part of the bipolar spectrum- which is somewhat elusive. The hypomanic (mild manic) tendencies in kids and young adults tends to be more functional more easily confused with "normal" behavior in that age range, so it goes unnoticed. A physician who doesn't take a complete history may not suspect that the patient may be bipolar and so prescribes zoloft (sometimes they even give samples) without first using a moodstabilizer or providing a scrip for say, ativan and - Zoooom. Off to the races.

Since the age of onset of bipolar (and even unipolar) disorders dropping (for a number of reasons) and (at least in the past) SSRI's have been handed out like candy, one can expect to see these cases from time to time- and among them, one will find a certain percentage where the 'activation' occurrs in the absense of ajunctive therapy- and suicidal or abberrant and violent behavior results.

Whether it actually happened in this case is hard to say. Clearly, the kid was disturbed- and his pathology may not have had anything to do with the bipolar spectrum or the oloft.

Either way, anyone who understands human development (both from a physiological and psychological standpoint) will tell you that legally almost no kids of that age are capable of forming the requisite mens reas, which is the legal term of art for "criminal intent."

People who claim otherwise understand neither psycology or the law.

[REP]

25. "Mens Rea" - Like Trying to Cover Up A Crime?

Not all children are salvagable. Edmund Kemper III wasn't; neither is this one.

[biftonnorton]

11. Difficult Science

So much of what patients and researchers are investigating as side effects of the SSRI antidepressants are also symptoms of depression-- fatigue, irritability, suicidal ideation. Very difficult to tease apart the symptoms of the illness from the effects of the medicine. Most of the people I've seen treated with an SSRI felt better within a few days and some thought it was the best thing to happen to them all their lives-- finally they felt like everyone else seemed to feel and had few side effects after a couple weeks. One hit somebody in a road rage incident and blamed it on the medicine, though.

[noonwitch]

12. I have a problem with trying a 12 year old (at the time) as an adult

I don't buy the Zoloft defense.

The fact that he set fire to his grandparents' bed after killing them, stole their car, and then tried to fake being kidnapped is indicative of something a little more than a bad reaction to Zoloft. It's not really insane behavior, either, it's really sociopathic. His grandparents got in the way of something he wanted to do, so he killed them, then tried to cover it up.

That said, he should be sent to a juvenile facility and they should try to work with him because of his age. If he were over 15 at the time, I'd say write him off as a hopeless case (I'm not advocating writing off 15 year olds who have committed lesser offenses, just for murder and I'm always opposed to the death penalty).

[WildClarySage]

13. All the same people who think trying 12 yr olds as adults is ok are the

same people saying that teens can't be in control of their own reproductive systems, hence the need for parental consent for abortion laws.

If we're going to base how we try children based on the nature of the crime rather than on the age of the child, there are lots of extreme things kids should be able to choose for themselves without adult consent.

This is messed up thinking. Makes me glad I don't live in SC anymore.

[napi21]

24. I think it depends on each individual kid.

I've met kids at 19 who were so immature they should be judged as juveniles, but I've also met kids at age 12 who were more streetwise and competent than some over 20.

I didn't follow this trial very close, and I'm not going to make a judgment if the jury was right or wrong, but from the little I've heard, it doesn't sound like this kid should be put in a juvenile facility. Mental...maybe, solitary...maybe.

Remember, juvenile convictions go away from your record when you reach 18. This was a crime that shouldn't disappear.

[gorbal]

16. I buy the Zoloft argument

My best friend and my mom have both been on Zoloft and I swear they turned into the most uncaring idiots imaginable. It was so strange, I felt like they were ploting to kill me.

[David Zephyr]

21. Boy Treated As Adult. GW Bush Was a "Youth" With Indiscretions at Forty!

Republican Congressman and all-time hypocrite, Henry Hyde, intentionally broke up a family by stealing a poor man's wife away from him. Hyde, who led the impeachment proceedings in the House Committee, would pull his big car right up in front of the trailer where the family lived and his mistress would leave her husband and family for an afternoon of sex. The family broke up.

Henry Hyde called it a "youthful indiscretion". Youthful? Hyde was over 40 years old when it happened.

And here's a twelve year old on mind altering drugs prescribed to him by a physician who is sentenced like an adult.

Equality under the law?