Here Comes The Bad-Butrin Defense

This is one of those stories you just don't know what to do with. A Vancouver, Wash. dentist is being sentenced for murdering his estranged wife. He confessed to the murder, according to news accounts. According to testimony at his trial, he was a bipolar, possibly undiagnosed, but was only being given Wellbutrin and Serzone. Wellbutrin, like some other anti-depressants, is famous for flipping bipolars into mania. I have no idea whether it is a legitimate defense here, but it would seem to argue that the man's sentence reflect something other than first-degree murder, if it is true that he had that kind of reaction to one of the meds and was, in fact, psychotic at the time of the crime. If he wasn't psychotic, then first-degree murder it is.

The world of psych meds is tricky for all concerned, tragically so at times.