Home | Community | Message Board


This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.


Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Shop: MagicBag.co All-In-One Bags That Don't Suck   Bridgetown Botanicals CBD Concentrates   Original Sensible Seeds Autoflowering Cannabis Seeds   PhytoExtractum Kratom Powder for Sale

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1
InvisibleDNKYD
Turtle!

Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 12,326
Psychologist Says Meds Made S.C. Boy Kill
    #3732527 - 02/04/05 08:50 PM (19 years, 1 month ago)


Makes me want to do a spin on the old "Reefer Madness" movie, and title mine "Zoloft Madness". It will star a young child on Zoloft, attempting suicide every day, murdering his grandparents with a shotgun, and burning down half his neighborhood.



Psychologist Says Meds Made S.C. Boy Kill

By BRUCE SMITH
Associated Press Writer
1010wins.com

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- A psychiatrist testified at a boy's murder trial Friday that the antidepressant Zoloft caused the 12-year-old to kill his grandparents with a shotgun and burn their house down.

"I think there is a very strong case to say the drug has caused a problem," said Dr. David Healy, an expert from Britain. "I'm saying at the time this murder happened, he did not have the capacity to know right from wrong."

Healy testified for the defense at the trial of Christopher Pittman, now 15. He is charged with killing Joe Pittman, 66, and Joy Pittman, 62, while they slept in 2001.

The defense has argued that the boy is not guilty because Zoloft made him unable to tell right from wrong. Prosecutors have countered that Pittman was angry at his grandparents for disciplining him for choking another student on a school bus.

On Thursday, a prosecution expert testified that it was anger, not Zoloft, that prompted Pittman to pull the trigger.

About a month before the slayings, Pittman was hospitalized after threatening to kill himself. He was prescribed the antidepressant Paxil and was later put on Zoloft.

Last October, the Food and Drug Administration ordered Zoloft and other antidepressants to carry "black box" warnings - the government's strongest warning short of a ban - that say they can raise the risk of suicidal behavior in children.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineLocus
Male

Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 03/11/04
Posts: 6,112
Last seen: 3 years, 1 day
Re: Psychologist Says Meds Made S.C. Boy Kill [Re: DNKYD]
    #3732991 - 02/04/05 10:24 PM (19 years, 1 month ago)

woah.. well i'd have to know what this kid was really like before the meds to actually judge this. i know antidepressants can cause shit like this to happen.. but it would be stupid to judge this incident without the proper knowledge that is needed.


--------------------

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity. ~ Albert Einstein
"Fear is the great barrier to human growth." ~ Dr. Robert Monroe



~~~*Dosis sola facit venenum*~~~

*Check my profile to listen to my music* :smile:

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinephi1618
old hand

Registered: 02/14/04
Posts: 4,102
Last seen: 13 years, 10 months
Re: Psychologist Says Meds Made S.C. Boy Kill [Re: DNKYD]
    #3733050 - 02/04/05 10:35 PM (19 years, 1 month ago)

Sounds like this kid had serious issues, beyond drug use. His grandparents "disciplin(ed) him for choking another student". He was put on the drug because he had threated suicide. The drug obviously didn't help him, but saying that the drug is responsible is... well, just irresponsible.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisibleDNKYD
Turtle!

Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 12,326
Re: Psychologist Says Meds Made S.C. Boy Kill [Re: phi1618]
    #3733070 - 02/04/05 10:38 PM (19 years, 1 month ago)

Antidepressants like Zoloft and Wellbutrin have tendencies to induce suicidal thoughts.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineLocus
Male

Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 03/11/04
Posts: 6,112
Last seen: 3 years, 1 day
Re: Psychologist Says Meds Made S.C. Boy Kill [Re: DNKYD]
    #3733171 - 02/04/05 10:54 PM (19 years, 1 month ago)

I missed that choking part. that still doesn't tell me a lot about this kid prior to using antidepressants, but i'd go out on a limb and guess that he had issues despite the antidepressant use. still.. i'm just guessing.. but i think there is something more than just the antidepressant that caused it. i wish i could get some more info on this kid though to really find out...


--------------------

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity. ~ Albert Einstein
"Fear is the great barrier to human growth." ~ Dr. Robert Monroe



~~~*Dosis sola facit venenum*~~~

*Check my profile to listen to my music* :smile:

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineSidiHidi
inactive
Registered: 02/04/05
Posts: 62
Last seen: 19 years, 1 month
Re: Psychologist Says Meds Made S.C. Boy Kill [Re: DNKYD]
    #3734551 - 02/05/05 08:46 AM (19 years, 1 month ago)

that kids family is going to get paid off by the pharm groups


--------------------
R.I.P. Hunter, you will certainly be missed

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinethebratpack
Stranger
Registered: 02/16/05
Posts: 1
Last seen: 19 years, 1 month
Re: Psychologist Says Meds Made S.C. Boy Kill [Re: DNKYD]
    #3788617 - 02/16/05 09:35 AM (19 years, 1 month ago)

I do not know if the Zoloft made him do it, I just know what it did to me. Ten years ago I tried to commit suicide. The first med the doctor put me on was Zoloft. I went from suicidal to homicidal with in a week. I didn't kill anyone though. It made me feel worse. I wanted my boyfriend to take me to a department store, he would only take me to Home Base. I got so enraged (and I am not an angry kind of person) I wanted to kill him. Then when I got to Home Base (a big open warehouse kind of store) I felt like I was suffocating. Like I was trapped inside my own body and couldn't get out. I had to leave the store. I was 26 and in charge of my own med so I took my self off of it the first week and went to my doctor. A child of 12 is given medicine they don't take it. He may have had the same thing going on but stayed on the medication and was unable to handle the emotions..
Or he may just be a killer... but after my experience I would have reasonable doubt.. glad I wasn't on that jury

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisibleveggieM

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
Re: Psychologist Says Meds Made S.C. Boy Kill [Re: DNKYD]
    #3788947 - 02/16/05 11:23 AM (19 years, 1 month ago)

Teen Gets 30 Years in Zoloft Murder Case
02.15.2005
forbes.com

AP-A 15-year-old boy who claimed the antidepressant Zoloft drove him to kill his grandparents and burn their house down was found guilty of murder Tuesday and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The jury took six hours to reject Christopher Pittman's claim that he was "involuntarily intoxicated" by the drug and could not be held responsible for the crime.

The case was one of the first of its kind to come to trial in the United States since the government began taking a close look at the dangers of antidepressant use among teenagers.

Pittman was 12 in 2001 when he killed his grandparents, Joe Pittman, 66, and Joy Pittman, 62, with a pump-action shotgun as they slept in their rural home, then torched their house and drove off in their car. He was charged as an adult.

Pittman hung his head as the verdict was read. "I know it's in the hands of God. Whatever he decides on, that's what it's going to be," he said quietly, just before Judge Danny Pieper handed down the minimum sentence. The boy could have gotten life in prison.

About a month before the slayings, Pittman was hospitalized after threatening to kill himself. He was prescribed the antidepressant Paxil and was later put on Zoloft.

A psychiatrist testified for the defense that the Zoloft was to blame for the killings, and a former Food and Drug Administration official told the jury that the crime was an angry, rash, manic act "that was chemically induced."

Pittman's lawyers urged the jury to send a message to the nation by blaming Zoloft. They said that the negative effects are more pronounced in youngsters, and that the drug robbed Pittman of the ability to tell right from wrong.

"We do not convict children for murder when they have been ambushed by chemicals that destroy their ability to reason," attorney Paul Waldner said.

But prosecutors called the Zoloft defense a smokescreen, saying the boy knew exactly what he was doing. Prosecutor Barney Giese said the boy was simply angry at his grandparents for disciplining him for choking a younger student on a school bus.

And Giese reminded jurors how the boy carried out the killings - shooting his grandfather in the mouth and his grandmother in her head while both lay sleeping.

"I don't care how old he is. That is as malicious a killing - a murder - as you are ever going to find," the prosecutor said. He pointed to Pittman's statement to police in which he said his grandparents "deserved it."

Juror Christine Peterson said that at first, she felt Zoloft was a factor in the slayings. "It bothered me a lot," said Peterson, 54, a banker. "It was not an easy decision. But everyone kept saying, `Look at the evidence. Look at the evidence.'"

As for Pittman, she said: "I don't think he was a bad seed. I think he did crazy things as a boy growing up. He didn't have a stable home life. But that doesn't excuse what he did."

Pfizer Inc., the manufacturer of Zoloft, said in a statement after the verdict: "Zoloft didn't cause his problems, nor did the medication drive him to commit murder. On these two points, both Pfizer and the jury agree."

In April, a Santa Cruz, Calif., a man who beat his friend was acquitted by a jury of attempted murder after he blamed the episode on Zoloft. But in at least two cases last year, juries in Michigan and North Dakota rejected similar claims.

Zoloft is the most widely prescribed antidepressant in the United States, with 32.7 million prescriptions written in 2003. Last October, the Food and Drug Administration ordered Zoloft and other antidepressants to carry "black box" warnings - the government's strongest warning short of a ban - about an increased risk of suicidal behavior in children.

Pittman's lawyers said they would file an appeal questioning whether the state can constitutionally try a 12-year-old in adult court for murder.

Pittman wept as his father and other family members asked for leniency.

"I love my son with all of my heart," said Joe Pittman, whose parents were the victims. "And my mom and dad, if they were here today, would be begging for mercy as well."

(Corrects that the case is not the first overall, but one of the first to arise since the government began reviewing antidepressant use among teens.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisibleDNKYD
Turtle!

Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 12,326
Re: Psychologist Says Meds Made S.C. Boy Kill [Re: veggie]
    #3789021 - 02/16/05 11:40 AM (19 years, 1 month ago)

I'm glad they gave him a good punishment. 30 years without that crackpot will do society good.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1

Shop: MagicBag.co All-In-One Bags That Don't Suck   Bridgetown Botanicals CBD Concentrates   Original Sensible Seeds Autoflowering Cannabis Seeds   PhytoExtractum Kratom Powder for Sale


Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* Teen Sentenced For Killing Mom With Scissors, Knife AnnoA 12,123 10 12/13/09 12:03 PM
by durian_2008
* Popular Antidepressants Boost Brain Growth veggieM 985 1 12/22/05 12:53 AM
by HagbardCeline
* Expert: Antidepressant behind Purcell murder veggieM 873 0 04/29/06 08:33 PM
by veggie
* FDA: Antidepressants Pose Risk to Teens schmutzen 1,656 3 12/09/06 02:27 AM
by veggie
* Global Rise in Antidepressants, Other Mind-Altering Drugs Prescribed to Children AnnoA 894 0 11/18/04 01:33 AM
by Anno
* New Antidepressant Drug Increases 'Brain's Own Cannabis' veggieM 1,627 4 12/14/05 02:21 PM
by ThePredator
* Antidepressant may help ease meth addiction veggieM 513 0 11/23/05 03:59 PM
by veggie
* 'Cannabis' acts as antidepressant veggieM 766 0 10/14/05 03:49 PM
by veggie

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: motaman, veggie, Alan Rockefeller, Mostly_Harmless
1,348 topic views. 0 members, 3 guests and 4 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2024 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.019 seconds spending 0.004 seconds on 12 queries.