Teenager on antidepressants found guilty of murder

Nutrition Health Review, Summer, 2004

In Charleston, South Carolina, a 15-year-old boy named Chris Pittman was sentenced to 30 years in prison for killing his grandparents. The defense attorneys argued that the boy was led to kill his grandparents because of ill effects from the antidepressant sertraline (Zoloft[R]).

The prosecution stated that the drug defense was a "smoke screen" and that the case was not about drugs at all but about the actual crime committed.

Prosecutors claim that the child killed his grandparents because of a disagreement over a punishment they gave him for fighting on the school bus. He had previously threatened suicide and was prescribed Zoloft[R] three weeks before the killing. His dose was doubled just two days before he murdered his grandparents.

Dr. Lanette Atkins, a lawyer for the defense, said that the defendant had heard voices that told him to kill" in the days leading up to the murder. Another defense psychiatrist said that the defendant "did not have the ability" to have any criminal intentions because of the prescription drug.

Zoloft[R] had been ordered to carry "black-box" warnings by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration--the government's strongest warning short of a ban--because of the possibility that it might increase the risk of suicidal behavior in children.

Forest Laboratories--the maker of the antidepressant Lexapro[R]--recently announced that a study done in 2002 found that the drug was ineffective in children and adolescents. The announcement came months after researchers discovered that medical studies are often altered to obtain particular desired results.

Celexa[R], another Forest antidepressant, contains the same active ingredient as Lexapro[R] and is often prescribed for pedatric patients.