Furious Seasons

September 13, 2006

The Bad-Butrin Defense Works

Earlier this year, I wrote about an 82-year-old man who had ben jailed on attempted murder charges after trying to stab his wife of 60 years. He claimed that a bad reaction to Wellbutrin made him do it—and his wife agreed. There had been no previous violence in theri relationship. Yesterday, after a jury had found him not guilty, a judge freed him. Fascinating, especially in light of the situation with Jeff Reardon (see below). I wonder if Reardon was on Wellbutrin.

This Seattle-area Wellbutrin case, along with the Reardon case, represent two of very few times that I know of Prozac-type defenses working out. I don't know what to make of that.

BTW, here's a website that claims to catalog alleged acts of violence and delusion committed by people taking anti-depressants. It looks like little more than a colelction of news accounts to me, and, so, I have the same qualms about it that I do with the "preventable tragedies" database maintained by the Treatment Advocacy Center—the information is raw, unconfirmed and not peer-reviewed.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at September 13, 2006 12:05 AM

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Comments

Hey Phil,

I have read over this database of alleged acts of violence and suicide committed by people taking anti-depressants. I started reading it months ago, searching for something resembling my own story. Before I took Celexa, I never had seen a psychologist or a psychiatrist. I was prescribed it by a nurse in a 5 minute consultation for insomnia. Worst mistake of my life. The drugs simply made me act weird. I would hate to be judged for the rest of my life by the behavior I exhibited on that drug.

Still, I am not too keen on the "drugs made me do it" defense. I am not keen on it when murderers claim they were drunk and smoking pot when they raped and strangled a young woman, for instance. But I think there is something especially terrifying that happens when you take a drug that you presume is entirely safe- because of the sunny advertisements you've grown up with, because of the warm assurances of a school nurse- and it begins to make you act aggressive, bizarre, irritable and self-destructive. I know it always easy to dismiss someone when they claim that a drug is to blame for their behavior- but I am positive- as are all of my loved ones, after seeing me before taking Celexa and after seeing me on it for several weeks- that SSRIs are incredibly dangerous for certain people. Some people can drink, others can't. Some people can't eat peanuts, others can't take penicillan. Drugs are just like that, it seems.

And I have to admit- I'm a little skeptical about the eagerness with which health care professionals will switch a person's diagnosis from depression or anxiety, or hell insomnia- to bipolar disorder when they have such a paradoxical reaction. Had I taken LSD and hallucinated I wouldn't have been diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia. Had I taken crystal meth and stayed up for 2 days painting I would probably not have been told I was bipolar and suffering from an organic brain disorder. I would have been told to stop using drugs and maybe sent to rehab. I wouldn't have been put on an LSD-stabilizer or a meth-stabilizer for the rest of my life to prevent me from reacting the same way I reacted while I was on drugs.

But that's what we do now. We make people chronic before they're chronic. And there's nothing wrong with the drugs. There's something wrong with US.

Posted by: Lily at September 13, 2006 11:48 AM