The Famous Zoloft Defense Case Draws To A Close
32 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // December 9th, 2010 // 3:06 pm
One of the most widely covered and hotly debated cases over the extent to which antidepressants may cause violent behavior has drawn to sad and quiet ending. Christopher Pittman, 21, has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the grisly killings of his grandparents in 2001, for which he was sentenced to 30 years in a trial in 2005.
At the time of the killings, Pittman was 12 years old and his case attracted wide attention not only because of his age and the 30-year sentence he received, but because his lawyers blamed Zoloft, the Pfizer antidepressant, for his violent behavior. The trial played out against a backdrop in which several drugmakers were already grappling with increased warnings that their antidepressants were linked to suicidal behavior and thoughts.
An effort to have Pittman’s sentence tossed on the ground that it was cruel and unusual punishment failed (look here), but he was awarded a new trial last summer, after a judge ruled this original attorneys failed to seek a plea deal and focused too much on Zoloft. The plea deal means he can be released in 12 years (see the report).
Shortly before the killings, Pittman had been prescribed Zoloft, and his parents had taken him to South Carolina to live with his grandparents, Joe and Joy Pittman, because he was having trouble at home in Florida. On the day of the killings, Christopher allegedly assaulted a second-grader on a school bus and then misbehaved at choir practice. That night, his grandparents confined him to his room and warned him he would be paddled if he came out. He did, and he was paddled.
So Christopher waited for his grandparents to go to bed, loaded a shotgun, entered their bedroom and shot them to death in their bed. He then lit several candles and positioned them in an apparent attempt to burn the house down, court records recounted. Then he took some money, weapons and his dog and drove off in his grandparents’ car.
Lisa Van Syckel
Let’s Hope and Pray he is granted an early parole!!!!
That Steve guy!
Lisa,
You are attempting to mollycoddle the little killer. If it wasn’t Zoloft, it would be something else.
If he took no drugs, he would act this scene out anyhow, one way or another, such as a kitchen utensil, (butcher knives and other sharp goodies),hammer,bat(I am told the aluminum bat is a wonder to behold). Rat poison, mouse poison and antifreeze could be considered.
Face it, this kid has the kill gene!
You can also partly blame the grandparents. They should have locked up the gun(s). And, where were his parents? Abandoned him?
When all else fails claim “The devil made me do it”. From Flip Wilson show.
Lisa Van Syckel
That Steve Guy,
Get Over Yourself!!! Doesn’t do you any Justice!!
That Steve guy!
Sorry Lisa, that will not do. Come up with something intelligent. And, spare the tears.
industry insider
Steve, here’s a third party observation. There are people on these boards whose lives have been severly disrupted by untoward effects of SSRI’s, and I say this as one who has spent 28 years in pharma clinical drug development. You can hardly expect them to adopt a neutral tone when discussing this issue, so cut them some slack. Tnanks.
harpy
no child is born with a “kill gene”
Jim
Perhaps true Industry Insider, but that doesn’t justify irrationality.
Unless someone on this board has spent several weeks digging into the details of this particular case, its foolish to make any assumptions either way.
Millions of people have taken these drugs, and if any one of them commits a violent act, its going to be blamed on the drug. But I’m not aware of any statistical study showing that those on antidepressants are more or less likely to commit violent acts than those who are not.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11473500
truth_will_out
It would appear that the original defence case was “sponsored” by The Juvenile Justice Foundation.(believed to be a scientology front)
http://www.juvenilejusticefoundation.com/Sponsored%20Cases.html
Lawyers involved have clear links to civil litigation antidepressants cases & potential cases. One could argue that young Christopher’s original trial was hijacked by lawyers & their media bag carriers intent on using murder case “pfizer discovery” in the hope on making $$$$$$$$$$$$ in subsequent civil litigation.
They all lost and as a result a boy got a man’s jail term.
When will these scientologists reflect that instead of making things better they are making things worse?
That Steve guy
Jim and others,
I have seen just about all that can happen, both near and far.
I think some folks believe if there are intervening matters, it’s excusable to kill. It isn’t. The killer has completely destroyed those close to them (relatives, etc.) and that causes horrible problems, one way or the other. It could be as important as the bread winner being taken out and having the balance of the family suffer so much. It could be a care giver’s patient and a host of other sadness; maybe, just a very close friend who becomes so lost, because that party was killed for really no apparent reason. I have seen these things turn into more sadness, including suicide as nothing there to live for. That’s their decision, be it weakness or strength.
I could further argue my thoughts and all of yours. The main event was the killing and ancillary hurt, not because the party took a drug. I conclude, remember the Twinkie defense? It was resolved; diminished capacity due to “depression” which caused the killer to eat more and more. His charges were reduced to manslaughter and thus, convicted.
industry insider
Jim, juries get put to sleep by statistical studies, valid as they may be. I was on the ground floor of SSRI development when the “Prozac Defense” became the first of its kind. I refer you to case #1, that of Joseph Wesbecker, the Louisville man who took Prozac and proceeded to committ mass murder. Although the jury initially found for the defensen, the judge reversed the decision, and over the next decade Lilly paid out millions of dollars to the victims’ families.
JaT
Not sure about this, but I read that Kip Kinkel, along with the other school shooters, was on behavioral meds. It does make a person wonder if these things leave kids without a conscience or the ability to exercise restraint.
If they had a violent streak prior to drugs - do behavioral meds work at all? Can drugs aggravate the problem?
Not sure I completely agree with Lisa, but can we agree that drugs are prescribed too quickly and have replaced the psyche couch? Maybe this was avoidable. It’s sickening that a list of not-so-unusual behaviors so quickly justifies meds that affect developing brains. Mass dosing feels a lot like bad practice. Seems we should be able to do better for the future of our country. I don’t think kids are born THAT much sicker today than they were a few decades ago.
Lisa Van Syckel
Jim,
The patient medication guide specifically refers to these medications causing violent agressive reactions. May I suggest to the naysayers that maybe you should take the time and read them. The world would be a safer place to live.
truth_will_out
Lisa
An examination of the patient information & or the product monograph does indeed show that in limited circumstances Zoloft (sertraline) is linked to violent self harm and agressive behaviours to others.
So could you please explain the apparent premeditation in young Chris Pittaman’s action
see - http://www.heraldonline.com/2010/12/09/2678194_p2/pittman-pleads-guilty-to-manslaughter.html#ixzz17i8F9C7W
quote
“But the conviction for double murder was overturned in July after a judge ruled his trial lawyers botched the case. The lawyers unsuccessfully tried to convince the jury that the Zoloft Pittman was taking at the time of the crime caused the shotgun shootings, and the lawyers did not pursue a plea deal - a deal that Pittman himself later said in a civil trial after suing the lawyers that he would have taken.
Thursday, Pittman took that deal.
And although he had the chance to say whatever he wanted to in court, Pittman only answered questions from the judge and did not say why he shot Joe and Joy Pittman in the head, burned down their house to cover up the crime, then told police he was kidnapped by a black man.
Pittman killed his grandparents, whom he had come to live with just weeks before the crime after having behavior problems in Florida, when he was disciplined after getting in trouble on the school bus. He waited for them to go to sleep on Nov. 28, 2001, then loaded a shotgun with four shells and waited for them to go to sleep. He then shot both of them, lit three candles in different rooms and surrounded the candles with paper to spread the flames, then fled in his grandparents Nissan Pathfinder. He drove west to Cherokee County where he was found by hunters, who called police.
Lisa Van Syckel
Truth Will Out,
Sure can, it’s called Psychosis which is also a side effect of the medication. Chemically altering the brain of a 12 year old is dangerous.
industry insider
JaT, here’s my issue. When you apply for a firearms ID card in the United States you must state on the application that you have never been treated for a mental illness (see example below from The State of Illinois). You are as good as your word, since there is no national database of mentally ill people in the United States to cross check, nor will there ever be because of privacy issues. If we could keep weapons out of the hands of meentally ill patients in the first place we couild at least limit the suffering they inflict on others, whether that’s due to drugs or it isn’t.
http://www.isp.state.il.us/docs/Smart%20FOID%20Application.pdf
JaT
Industry Insider,
It’s hard to blame the access to weapons. They have always been there. One would be replaced with another. Maybe one day all of these thousands of children will be denied their second amendment rights. Wouldn’t bet there is no database. Some of these kids justify SSDI checks and the schools definately have all of their med sheets.
Go to a public school during the dosing parade. Think ~One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest~ and the slow shuffle to the meds window.
Ever seen it?
Everyone should take the ADHD Quiz from the perspective of themselves as a child:
http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/adhd/l/bl_adhd_quiz.htm
No hesitation or fidgeting now. Don’t dislike the task or get distracted. Be sure you answer if spoken to while you remain completely focused. Remember you are 10 or 12.
If you want robotic behavioral perfection then it is hard to blame children for a robotic lack of emotion.
industry insider
JaT. I’ve never had the pleasure of watching the school dosing parade, a la Cuckoo’s Nest, but I’m sure that some of the kids are just as adept as Jack Nicholson was at hiding the pill in their mouths and never swallowing it in the first place. Actually, with the once/day meds now out there for childhood ADHD, they can take their meds before going to school, and there should be no reason for the dosing parade in the first place. On the other hand, if you add in all the kids with bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, school phobia, conduct disorder and some of the older ones who are nascent schizophrenics or just plain sociopaths like Kinkel or the Columbine killers you probably get a pretty long line after all.
Better make sure that, like Charley Cheswick in “Cuckoo’s Nest” these kids get their Marlboro’s or they may really go nuts.
industry insider
p.s., JaT, I had a habit of carving my initials in every desk I inhabited from K-12. Does that make me diagnosed as “The Carver”, like the lunatic from the show “Nip/Tuck”?
Evelyn Pringle
Most people commenting here, aside from Lisa, obviously have no background knowledge of this case.
I would suggest you all take the time to do a google search and read the many, many reports to get a full understanding of this child and the medication effects instead of engaging in idle speculation about a tragedy that is very well explained in likely hundreds of articles on the internet - including several of my own.
My own articles include statements from the grandmother, as well as Christopher’s father and aunt whose parents were the murder victims.
They all agree that the medication turned shy, reserved and harmless Christopher into a child they did not know.
A former FDA official testified at trial to the effects of the SSRI and that he believed Christopher’s behavior was caused by the drugs.
He was given the usual sample packets with no warnings by a GP so when what the experts testified sounded like akithisia developed in Christopher, nobody knew to heed the signs.
Andy Vickery’s law firm is not a front group for Scientology either.
Don’t you people ever get tired of trying to blame that religion every time anyone tries to expose the harm caused by psych drugs?
That worn out tactic is getting mighty old by now being there are many, many of us out here that are not Scientologists but who work right along side CCHR in trying to stop the mass pysch drugging of children in this country.
I’ve often said that it’s high time that anybody who tries to bring religion into these debates should be required to state their own religion at the start of their blog - and also with a real name signed to their post.
For the record, although I’m not an athiest, I am not a fan of any organized religion.
Mr. Interesting
Ms. Pringle,
You are apparently in a state of denial. I wonder if your motto is,
“when in doubt,blame the drug”? And make sure you protect the Church of Scientology.
truth_will_out
Lisa said “Sure can, it’s called Psychosis which is also a side effect of the medication…”
Again I agree with you & this time I point our readers to the Patients info leaflet & the S.P.C both available here http://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/medicine/1467/SPC/Lustral/
Zoloft/Lustral/sertraline really can make some patients psychotic.
However given the opportunity of a second trial Pittman did not claim that Zoloft/sertraline made him psychotic hence the shooting neither did he plead ” Chemically altering the brain of a 12 year old ” in mitigation.
Why not?
truth_will_out
Ms Pringle
Though you mention Andy Vickery above you forgot to mention Karen Barth Menzies,as we all know is tied up with Baum Hedlund, who’s “Skip” Murgatroyd google claims is right up to his neck in scientology & various suits !
Google also Michael Baum, Paul Hedlund.
Perhaps young Pittman’s biggest mistake was handing his initial defence over to a bunch of hooks or was it rather they targeted him via the http://www.juvenilejusticefoundation.com/CP%20page.html
who rather seem to have forgotten him.
source Quote -
“Karen Barth Menzies admits failing child who got 30 years in jail - Christopher Pittman
“The biggest fear that I had was that we needed more perspective from a criminal defense lawyer in South Carolina,” said Karen Menzies, a civil litigator who was one of several attorneys on Christopher Pittman’s original team.
Menzies testified during the second day of testimony in a hearing that will determine if Pittman gets a new trial. ”
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/aug/28/defense-team-made-mistakes-lawyers-say/
Catherine Creel
@ Jim you state that you are “…not aware of any statistical study showing that those on antidepressants are more or less likely to commit violent acts than those who are not.”
Try this:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0015337
Do you really think the drug industry itself is going to publicize this issue with their drugs? Did you ever read that Prozac trials were stopped and a benzodiazepine added to the trial protocol because people exhibited suidical and homecidal tendencies? Nobody was told. When Prozac was approved, physicians were not told about the addition of the benzodiazepine. It came to light during the execution of a discovery motion.
There are people who have done a highly respectable job of showing the many lies of the pharmaceutical industry, especially surrounding psychotropic drugs. This year [2010], these books tackled the subject well: Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker, The Myth of the Chemical Cure by Joanna Moncrieff, Not Crazy: You May Not Be Mentally Ill by Charles Whitfield, and Drug-Induced Dementia by Grace Jackson. All are well-referenced. There is also this new article just published:
Whitfield CL (2010) Psychiatric drugs as agents of trauma. Int J of Risk and Safety in Medicine 22 (4)195-207. These authors with the exception of Whitaker, are practicing psychiatrists.
truth_will_out
Oh well that’s young Pittman forgotten about.
Let that be an object lesson to those who will let their loved ones be exploited by the anti pharma / scientology litigation racket.
Yolande Lucire
Christopher should have genetic testing now for CYP450 2D6, 2C9 and 2C19. A buccal swab test for this is available in Australia for $280.
He took paroxetine (Paxil) first and had and adverse drug reaction, (ADR) and Paxil is metabolised by 2D6, 3A4, ABCB1 inhibits 2D6 (quasi irreversibly) also inhibits 2B6, 3A4, 2A4, 2C9, 2C19 and ABCB1. Then he got sertraline, (Zoloft) (without a washout period to re-establish 2D6) and that is metabolised by 2B6, 2C9, 2C19, 2D6, and inhibits 3A4, UGT2B7, UGT1A1, ABCB1.
He was a thirteen-year-old child with immature cytochromes, enzymes that comprise a metabolic system. He became toxic on sertraline and committed homicide. I have ten like him.
He now needs to take legal action against Pfizer for failure to warn of this devastating side effect and its relationship to poor and intermediate metaboliser status, as they, Pfizer, about it, and about how quickly what they call “hostility” manifested in kids well before Christopher Pittman killed. He and his doctors and lawyers are all victims of pharmaceutical industry fraud.
I would love to add Christopher to my case study of ten persons who committed homicide on antidepressants (given for trivial purposes) because they had genetically determined absent or diminished activity metabolising genes of the CYP450 family. I have tested over 100 persons because they had become suicidal and homicidal on psychiatric drugs and 9 out of 10 had mutated genes that could not metabolise these drugs. That is many times more than one might expect in a population. Some had multiple drugs superimposed after the first ADR.
The medical establishment of NSW, Australia, seems determined that my reputation be destroyed so I cannot give such evidence without debilitating personal challenge.
See this for my story as far as I am permitted to tell it. A cautionary tale for whistleblowers in Australia, In USA, I would be lining up for whistleblower rewards.
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=11394
Lisa Van Syckel
Yolande,
Christopher has already had the genetic test done, and for privacy reasons I won’t reveal the results.
Yolande Lucire
It is bleeding obvious that he had a genetic problem, I do understand that it was not a ‘legal’ issue in his appeal, but it is new evidence in case legal fails and it can be in a damages suit, we know more about these drugs now they did when Christopher was 12, including the long term, lingering effects of Paxil on 2D6 which would have still been still in evidence when he got Zoloft. sertraline this” quasi irreversible” inhibition of 2D6 by paroxetine was disclosed only a year or two ago, and from a Glaxo GSK laboratory,but known since in 1992. What was new between then and now is that effects of paxil are ‘quasi irreversible” If you want references please ask,
truth_will_out
Please let’s not loose sight of the fact that if he had of had a proper defence as a child, instead of a cynical attempt by Baum Hedlund/Barth Menzies/Vickery to exploit his situation, he would have been free by now!
Even Menzies, upon late reflection was not happy with the original.
If you are going to win this war against pharma/psychiatry your gona have to change tactics.
Yolande Lucire
I do not defame people who have done less than than the perfect thing, as it is human to err and all of us have done it. mMaking a tactical error does not constitute exploitation. if indeed it was an error and I am no judge of that as I am not a lawyer or a judge. I cannot change my tactics and pretend to be a lawyer. The evidence I am saying is available gives him a second chance, and a chance at a damages claim against a drug company or, in this case two of them, because GSK and Pfizer did know this information. decieved the US FDA, and people on it, and suppressed it. That in my mind is the source of exploitation. For the purposes of getting Christopher damages. This information provides new evidence.
truth_will_out
Hardly a tactical error to fail to offer a child a plea bargain when ones innate desire is to test ones dogma in a criminal court with a desire to max out in subsequent Zoloft civil litigation.
Nor is it defamous to point this out given that the premise is supported by the comments of Karen Barth Menzies when Pittman sued his original defence.
I have no problems with your position that he may have had issues metabolizing SSRI’s. Many have suffered.
Why was a child so young on such powerful adult medications, why was a child tried as an adult?
The initial trial was a fishing trip with young Pittman as bait on the hook.
This is sick!
Yolande Lucire
Why are you so abusive? Just like my colleagues who do not believe in SSRI-induced suicide and homicide. We do not disagree on that.
We should be joining forces in an Innocence Project.
We agree about what I am saying and I know I am right as it have tested 10 antidepressant homicides in a row (and many more who made attempts and many persons with violent behaviours and such a large series tested prospectivly comprises good Popperian, Daubert-competent science
If Christopher had been my son I too might have taken the chance of a “not guilty’ verdict, and it is not too late to do that after whatever is going on now.
Others got no chance at all.
Some antidepressant homicide cases have succeeded in getting a verdict of “Not guilty” where pharmacogenetic evidence has been presented.
The problem was that when Christopher killed, pharmacogentics was not so advanced as it is now. Nor was as much known about PHaRMa fraud. Baum Hedlund (your rivals) had successes. Everyone has failures, except possibly in USA where some lawyers think they are infallible as plea bargains are a win-win for lawyers but a terrible loss for those who plead guilty when they are innocent.
Because of plea bargaining provisions in USA, PHaRMas can plea bargain out of criminal fraud charges and go on doing it, as it is profitable.
http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c5095.extract
Some people prefer to draw a line and make a stand for justice. Some jpeople take risks. We in Australia regard plea bargaining as a travesty of justice and it is not legal here. (But it does go on)
truth_will_out
Well I am not in Australia & thank god for that. In the country in which I live it would not be considered appropriate to take a “chance” on the defence tactic for a young child.
Neither do we do plea bargains so perhaps a plea of diminished responsibility due to insanity caused by drug induced psychosis?
As you see there is more unites us than divides us.
The problem I have with all of this is how can he be one moment a 12 year old “drug crazed killer” then get into a truck and drive off down the road after burning the house down to cover his tracks? Not to mention the racist slur that a “black man” did it !!
Were Jamie Bulger’s killers on SSRI’s ? Well I don’t know, but killers they sure were, however they didn’t get anything like 30 years.
Jon Venables is back in the nick. So I guess some bad apples can’t be cured.
The question is & remains did Zoloft make this one worse than he was?