- Looking to bolster a theory linking antidepressants to
adolescent violence, a group that studied the Columbine High School massacre
has decided to follow the John Gebauer murder case.
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- The International Coalition for Drug Awareness -- counting
dozens of cases in which juveniles reportedly hurt themselves or others
while taking prescription drugs such as Paxil, Prozac, Celexa and Luvox
-- wants Congress to hold hearings on whether the antidepressants are appropriate
for young people.
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- Through monitoring of newspapers and the Internet, group
members built a bank of cases to advance their claims. In the process,
they became aware of Gebauer, 16, charged last year with fatally shooting
his adoptive mother, Alison, and sexually abusing her corpse at the family's
Fallowfield farm.
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- Gebauer, who faces a preliminary hearing June 18, acknowledged
taking an antidepressant in an October 2000 school essay he wrote about
his family life. He didn't identify the drug.
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- Washington County assistant public defender Thomas Cooke
said Gebauer had been prescribed Prozac before coming to live with Alison
and Edward Gebauer, who adopted him in 1999, but didn't know whether his
client ever took the drug. Washington lawyer David DiCarlo, Gebauer's court-appointed
guardian, declined comment.
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- Ann Blake Tracy, the coalition's executive director,
said Prozac and other antidepressants can induce a state in which adults
or juveniles act out their "worst nightmares." Tracy said she
founded the nonprofit group in Salt Lake City, Utah, about 10 years ago
to educate people about the risks and described teenagers as particularly
vulnerable because of their developing minds and bodies.
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- She said Prozac, Luvox and Paxil belong to a family of
drugs that, in fighting depression, restrict the brain's ability to metabolize
the chemical serotonin. The coalition's Web site at <http://www.drugawareness.org/>drugawareness.org
says serotonin "is the same brain chemical that LSD, PCP and other
psychedelic drugs mimic in order to produce their hallucinogenic effects."
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- In some people, Tracy said, violent tendencies occur
during use of the drugs and during withdrawal. If people aren't weaned
from the drugs slowly, she said, violent behavior can linger for months
or years.
-
- "It begins to subside, but it can continue,"
she said.
-
- A spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers
of America could not be reached for comment. But drug companies have refuted
the coalition's claims and similar arguments by lawyers who took the companies
to court.
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- Lisa Van Syckel, the coalition's New Jersey director,
said she called Cooke last month after Common Pleas Judge Katherine B.
Emery rejected Gebauer's motion to have his case heard in juvenile court.
She said she wanted to alert Cooke to the drugs' effects on some people
and speak about cases the group had investigated, including the 1999 Columbine
massacre of 12 students and a teacher by trenchcoat-clad teens Eric Harris
and Dylan Klebold.
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- "I know the Eric Harris file like the back of my
hand ... I now understand how Columbine could have occurred," Van
Syckel said, referring to the gunman's use of Luvox.
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- Cooke said he's willing to consider Van Syckel's information
but doesn't know how, if at all, the group's concerns would fit into a
defense strategy for Gebauer. He said he doesn't know whether there's a
conclusive scientific basis for the theory of antidepressant-induced violence
or whether it would be possible to isolate a drug's effects from the effects
of a traumatic childhood.
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- Gebauer, 15 at the time of the shootings, lost his biological
mother to cancer when he was 7. His father was out of his life by then,
and the child was shuttled between foster homes for years before the Gebauers
decided to adopt him.
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- Cooke said he still needs medical records to determine
when Gebauer took Prozac, if at all. He said it doesn't appear Gebauer
took an antidepressant while living in Washington County.
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- Van Syckel said she would consider traveling to Washington
for Gebauer's trial.
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- The notion of antidepressant-induced violence has been
introduced in court with mixed results.
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- Van Syckel said she helped Mark Taylor -- wounded multiple
times by Harris -- to file suit against Luvox manufacturer Solvay Pharmaceuticals.
In February, Taylor settled for a $10,000 contribution to the American
Cancer Society.
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- Two years ago, a federal jury in Cheyenne, Wyo., ordered
Paxil maker GlaxoSmithKline to pay $6.4 million to relatives of a man who
fatally shot his wife, daughter, granddaughter and himself after 48 hours
on the drug. It was the first major victory in such a case, with the jury
finding the drug primarily responsible for the violence, said the plaintiffs'
lawyer, Andy Vickery of Houston, Texas.
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- Vickery reached an undisclosed settlement for Melvin
J. and Diane V. Cassidy of Monroeville, Allegheny County, in their lawsuit
three years ago against Prozac maker Eli Lilly and Co. The suit alleged
Diane Cassidy attempted suicide because of the drug.
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- While Tracy blames the drugs' impact on serotonin levels,
Vickery offered a somewhat different theory. He said a small percentage
of people may have difficulty metabolizing the drugs and act aggressively
when the medications build inside them.
-
- Vickery, who chronicles some of his cases on the Web
site at <http://www.justiceseekers.com/>justiceseekers.com said drug
companies are liable because they haven't adequately warned consumers about
the danger.
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- Some lawyers also have assailed the drugs in criminal
cases.
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- Psychiatrist Peter R. Breggin says on his Web site at
<http://www.breggin.com/>breggin.com that his expert testimony persuaded
a South Carolina judge to reduce the sentence of a man who committed rape
after taking Paxil and a Virginia judge to reduce the sentence of a man
who shot his wife and a sheriff's deputy after taking Prozac and other
drugs.
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- Columbine is one of many cases the coalition cites in
letters to elected officials demanding better regulation of the drugs.
One case hits close to home for Van Syckel, who said her family's story
will be told in the August issue of Good Housekeeping magazine.
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- She said she became active in the coalition after her
daughter, Michelle, a high school senior, four years ago complained of
ill health, mistakenly was diagnosed with depression and was prescribed
a variety of antidepressants. Van Syckel said she saw sweeping changes
in an honor-roll student who spoke French fluently, had no history of drug
or alcohol abuse and hailed from a stable family.
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- She said her daughter cut herself dozens of times with
knives, razors and jagged pieces of compact disc cases. "She even
cut the word 'die' in her abdomen" and threatened to kill her mother
with an ax, Van Syckel said in a July 30 letter to President Bush that
urged him to act on her concerns about the drugs.
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- Van Syckel said her daughter had Lyme disease, not depression,
and was evidently infected by a tick when the family settled in New Jersey
after living five years in Belgium.
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- Meanwhile, the Van Syckels have sued the doctors who
misdiagnosed Michelle and the hospitals where she was treated. The case
has not been resolved.
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- "Her beautiful smile and wonderful disposition have
returned, and she has been treated for her Lyme disease," Van Syckel
told Bush. However, the letter said Michelle has irreversible brain damage
and other problems.
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- Van Syckel said she wasn't satisfied with Bush's response,
which arrived in the form of a letter from a U.S. Food and Drug Administration
official who asked the family to file a formal report about Michelle's
reaction to the drugs. On a more positive note, she said, a handful of
congressman have come out in support of hearings on the issue.
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- U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, a child psychologist
who took office in January, said he did not know whether his office had
been contacted by the coalition. But Murphy, co-chairman of the Mental
Health Caucus, said he's willing to listen.
-
- "I'll certainly review anything they send to me
on that," he said.
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- Joe Smydo can be reached by at <mailto:jsmydo@post-gazette.com>jsmydo@post-gazette.com
or 724-746-8812.
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- http://www.post-gazette.com/neigh_washington/20030601wacover2.asp
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- For Further Information
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- Dr. Ann Blake Tracy, Executive Director, International
Coalition For Drug Awareness Office: 801-282-5282 Cell: 801-209-1800
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