If You Think There is a Risk Then Why on Earth Are You Releasing Him?

From the Derby Evening Telegraph

A Transcript reveals how a doctor was warned by a police inspector about the risk of releasing a patient who threatened to torch his house - 24 hours before he set himself on fire and died.

It shows Inspector Alison Dando telling psychiatrist Dr Raj Sinha that, if anything happened to Andrew Whetton, "it would look bad on the health authority".

The 48-year-old begged to be kept in hospital and threatened to set fire to his house but was released from the mental health unit.

The next day, he covered his clothes in petrol and set them alight while in a car with his partner of 25 years, Julie Croft, in Marston Lane, Hatton.

Coroner Dr Robert Hunter recorded a verdict of suicide at the end of a two-day inquest yesterday.

However, he said the fact Mr Whetton was not given a mental health examination by a senior psychiatrist after the suicide threat was a "contributing factor in his death".

Dr Sinha rang police to let them know Mr Whetton was being released.

After a recording of the call Dr Sinha made to police was played in court, he said: "Too much pressure was coming to me at that time. It was not an ideal situation.

"We do not have a machine to say what this patient will do."

[...]

Dr Robert Rowlands, an independent psychiatrist asked to look at Mr Whetton's medical notes, also questioned the decision not to carry out an assessment.

He said: "People being agitated to the point of pleading on their knees - that's an unusual level of agitation. If you have ended up on a psychiatric ward, you are a high risk.

"Dr Gupta did not actually review the patient himself. That would have been the prudent thing to do."

The inquest heard how Mr Whetton could not be sectioned under the Mental Health Act as he wanted to stay in hospital.

Summing up, the coroner said: "Mr Whetton was agitated, he fell to his knees pleading with staff not to discharge him. The team were collectively concerned to inform the psychiatrist, but no formal examination was made. The consultant psychiatrist did not see him. As a result of that decision, it was agreed he should be sent on home leave. I find that this was a contributing factor in Mr Whetton's death."

Karadzic’s alter ego

More on the prospects for mad psychiatrist Radovan Karadzic.

The July 30 extradition of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to the Netherlands, following his July 21 arrest, put an end to many years of efforts to bring one of the world’s most wanted fugitives to justice. After 12 years on the loose, Karadzic will face charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, committed during the 1992/95 war in Bosnia, before the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

Many people remain shocked that the one time president of Republika Srpska, allegedly responsible for carrying out massive ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian war, was living a normal life in Belgrade, just like any ordinary citizen. Those more familiar with his numerous transformations, however, were not as surprised.

A graduate psychiatrist, poet and politician, Karadzic was captured spending his days practising alternative medicine, giving lectures, contributing to a health magazine and even running his very own website. Pretty bold, many would say, but, on second thought, these proved to be quite successful tactics because media reported a number of people who have known and been in touch with “Dr Dragan Dabic” are utterly stupefied after finding out who he really was.

[...]

In spite of being officially married to psychiatrist Ljiljana Zelen-Karadzic, with whom he has two children, Sasa and Sonja, Karadzic was reported to have a girlfriend, Mila, during the time he spent as Dr Dabic. She often accompanied him to his lectures and was introduced, by Karadzic, as his associate, media reports claim.

Zoran Pavlovic, the software engineer who worked on Dabic’s website, told the AP Karadzic had a framed photograph of four boys in his two-room apartment in the suburb of New Belgrade, who he claimed to be his grandsons living in the US. Karadzic said he had lived in New York, where he had earned his diploma. “He told me he travelled often to America and I had no reason to disbelieve him,” the software expert told the AP.

Karadzic did not miss out on social life either, as reports say he frequently visited the Madhouse bar in his neighbourhood. There, he enjoyed drinking red wine and listening to the traditional gusle, which he occasionally got to play himself. On its walls, the small pub had pictures of him and his one time close associate Ratko Mladic, the chief of staff of the Bosnian Serb army during the Bosnian war and the next top wanted fugitive on the list of The Hague tribunal.

As the days of healer Dabic are now over, Karadzic has removed the long beard and hair hiding his face. He has also announced he would defend himself at the tribunal. However, how could any defense rebut the charges, as the war in Bosnia saw the worst atrocities in Europe since the end of World War Two?

TV psychiatrist "unfit to practice"

a followup and conclusion to earlier reports. As reported by Reuters.

Psychiatrist and broadcaster Dr Raj Persaud has been found unfit to practice after he admitted plagiarising other people's work, the medical watchdog said on Friday.

His conduct was "inappropriate, misleading, dishonest and liable to bring the profession into disrepute", a General Medical Council panel found.

He had undermined public confidence in the profession and his conduct had "fallen below the standards of behaviour the public expected from doctors", it added.

Persaud had admitted copying four pieces of work for his 2003 book "From the Edge of the Couch" during a GMC disciplinary hearing in Manchester this week.

The former presenter of the BBC Radio 4 programme "All in the Mind" also admitted copying passages from two other pieces of work in a series of newspaper articles and journals.

He was resident psychiatrist on the daytime TV show "This Morning" and has appeared on the "Richard & Judy" show. He has also written for The Daily Telegraph and The Independent.

Persaud had denied dishonesty, but the GMC said he must have known what he was doing. He had said he was in a confused mental state at the time of writing the work because of the pressure of juggling his work for the media and the National Health Service.

"Your dishonest conduct brings the profession into disrepute and the panel has... concluded that your fitness to practise is impaired by reason of your misconduct," the GMC said in a written judgement.

"The panel has determined that your dishonest conduct in plagiarising other people's work on multiple occasions represents a serious breach of the principles that are central to good medical practice.

"Your conduct has fallen below the standards of behaviour that the public is entitled to expect from doctors and undermines public confidence in the profession."

While the panel said no patients had been injured it still had an obligation to protect the profession's reputation.

"Doctors occupy a position of privilege and trust in society and are expected to act with integrity and to uphold proper standards of conduct," the panel said.

Persaud is a consultant psychiatrist at the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals and Gresham professor for Public Understanding of Psychiatry.

In 2002, he was voted one of the top 10 psychiatrists in the UK by a survey of the Institute of Psychiatry and the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

The psychiatric drug connection to Emo Kids

A report in the Guardian newspaper on the "emo" fad labels it as a cult, but of interest to our regular readers is the connection to psychiatric medications. Specifically, paragraphs 61 through 63 of the story read:

"'I was going through an unhappy period at school," she recalls. 'I grew up in the wealthy area of Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, and I was surrounded by spoilt rich kids. I felt that being an emo gave me a defined individuality.'"

"Looking back, she acknowledges that the 'cult', as she calls it, was heavily linked to self-harm and depression."

"Many of her friends were actually taking prescription antidepressants."

SSRI Stories believes 13 year old suicide victim Hannah Bond (featured in the story) may have ingested antidepressants given to her by her friends. This is a fairly common practice.

Psychiatric Medications Kill Schozphrenic

As reported in the North West Evening Mail

The cumulative effect of two drugs prescribed for schizophrenia killed a 34-year-old Millom man, a coroner has found.

Graham Date, of Trinity Road, died at his parents’ house in Festival Road on September 24 last year.

West Cumbria coroner John Taylor will now pass on concerns raised by Mr Date’s family to his doctor about the cumulative effect of taking Clozapine – an anti-psychotic – and Venlafaxine – an anti-depressant – asking him to let drug authorities know.

Mr Date’s father, Samuel, said at the end of the inquest in Millom: “These two drugs caused the problem and I am bothered that the same thing could happen again.”

At the inquest, Mr Taylor found no evidence that Mr Date, who was on medication to control paranoid schizophrenia, took his own life.

He recorded a verdict of accidental death caused by an overdose of the two drugs.

Samuel Date said in a statement that his son had been in psychiatric care three times in early adulthood following several attempts to take his own life, and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Mr Date also told the inquest that his son had back pain which started when he worked as a chef.

He had moved in with his parents in Millom in 2001, before getting his own house about three years ago, and was very close to his family and friends.

Mr Date junior was also excited because he was about to start teaching crafts to people with learning difficulties in Barrow.

He had been staying with his parents for a few days in September while his sister was visiting, and later complained of being constipated and feeling unwell.

On September 24 he was unwell and Mr Date senior told him to go for a lie down. When his mum, Bessie, went to change the bed she thought Mr Date junior looked very unwell and a doctor was called.

Mr Date senior said: “After a couple of minutes, he rolled on to his back and I knew he was dead.

“I carried out mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but it was to no avail. The doctor said he had died of a massive heart attack.”

In a statement, GP Dr Richard Walker said Mr Date junior was in regular contact with the mental health team and the surgery. He was “markedly overweight” but his mental health was stable.

A toxicology report showed that the level of Clozapine in Mr Date’s blood was in excess of what would normally be seen during therapeutic use, while the level of Venlafaxine was “towards the upper range” of what would normally be seen.

Consultant pathologist at West Cumberland Hospital, Dr Mitali Gangopadhyay, concluded that the two drugs used together would have had an additive effect on the central nervous system and that the cause of death was a drugs overdose.

Mr Taylor said: “Everybody’s bodies process drugs differently and some people’s are more effective at getting rid of drugs in the system than others. Sometimes drugs can store in the system for longer than would perhaps be the case for someone else.”

He found that Mr Date’s mental health was relatively well controlled, he was strict about his drug regime and had not shown any thought of harming himself.

He said: “It is quite clear from the pathologist’s report that she didn’t find anything else wrong with him physically, and that in the absence of any other explanation and after taking into account the cumulative effect of the drugs and these drugs taken together, she gives the cause of death as being due to an overdose.

“On that evidence, I’m going to record a verdict of accidental death in that there is doubt that he did take the drugs. Whether or not he took too many, we don’t know, and we can’t be sure whether the drugs in his system had accumulated and were enough to take his life.”

The great depression swindle - British tests for depression worse that useless

As seen in the Daily Mail

The test GPs use to diagnose depression is worse than useless, according to new research. Under the latest government guidelines, doctors are paid extra to ask patients two simple questions. Your answers are supposed to show if you are depressed or not.

But, a study has found that 62 per cent of patients diagnosed as depressed weren't in fact depressed at all.

As a result, doctors and psychiatrists could be seriously over-estimating the number of people who are depressed - and prescribing drugs to thousands who are healthy, says the study's author, Dr Alex Mitchell, a consultant psychiatrist at Leicester General Hospital.

Under current guidelines, with mild to moderate depression are meant to be offered talking therapies - psychological treatments which help people change their attitudes or behaviour patterns.

Research by the mental health charity SANE has found that only [...] two per cent of patients were having cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and more than 80per cent of patients were being treated with medication.

Anti-depressants come with a range of side-effects. About 25 per cent of patients have problems when they try to stop taking them and studies have found they can cause a rise in suicidal thoughts and actions. Patients also report a loss of libido.

Two recent studies have linked the drugs with a drop in bone density leading to osteoporosis and a dramatic fall in the number of sperm a man can produce.

Given all this, you would expect those two questions, approved by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) in 2004, to be exacting.

In fact they are absurdly simplistic and, worryingly, if you answer yes to both you could be put on Prozac.

The two questions are:

• During the past month have you been bothered by feeling down, depressed or hopeless?
• During the past month have you been bothered by having little interest or pleasure in doing things?

The GPs' two-question test isn't the only one the experts have got badly wrong. Dr Mitchell's other shocking discovery is that the latest guidelines to detect post-natal depression (PND) are even more inaccurate, but in the opposite direction.

A new three-question test fails to spot an astonishing 80 per cent of the women who actually are depressed.

"It uses the same two questions as for regular depression and then adds a third: "Do you want help?" This reduces the accuracy of the test to just 17 per cent," explains Dr Mitchell.

NICE is now in discussion with Dr Mitchell about the PND test.

According to the doctors' newspaper Pulse, many GPs are dropping the depression test because they don't believe it is good for patient care, even though they will lose income as a result. It's mainly aimed at high risk patients, such as those with heart disease or diabetes.

Many GPs say they don't have the time for longer, more accurate testing - the reason for introducing the shorter test in the first place.

The useless tests also threaten to make a nonsense of a new government initiative to make CBT available to many online.

Last year, a group of charities, including the Mental Health Foundation and Mind, called for a "large sustained cash injection to improve psychological treatments'.

They said CBT was as effective as drugs and that more than half of GPs believed it was the best option.

The internet scheme, unveiled by Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt last month, has been designed to meet criticism that, even though CBT is recognised as the best treatment for depression, waiting times can be more than a year because the health service needs 10,000 more therapists.

If you rate as depressed on the flawed test, you get eight onehour interactive computer sessions on a program called Beating The Blues with homework projects and GP progress reports - much cheaper than training 10,000 therapists.

The aim, said Ms Hewitt, was to allow patients to access the right sort of therapy "instead of just being prescribed medication".

One doctor who has been using the system in Swindon, Wiltshire, for three years was enthusiastic.

Dr Peter Crouch said: "It has significantly helped patients cope with anxiety, insomnia and stress." But, of course, how useful it is depends on how accurately people are diagnosed.

Indeed, what is the point of rolling out a programme that will be offered to hundreds who don't need it - or if it isn't provided to those who do? Soon many will be spending hours at their keyboard doing CBT exercises for no reason.

The 'good' news is that computers and the internet are likely to be much more widely used to spot who needs help - and at least these seem more accurate than the two-question test.

A recent report by researchers in Taiwan reported that an online questionnaire filled in by more than 500 people identified 38 per cent as depressed and 46 per cent as not. When they were tested by a psychiatrist, 75 per cent of the diagnoses were correct.

Soon patients may be asked to fill in longer questionnaires of this sort, while they are in the waiting room.

And if it is done on a computer the doctor could then have the results during the session. For the moment, what can you do to increase your chances of getting the right sort of help?

Dr Mitchell's research into how GPs diagnose depression also provides some useful tips. "Doctors tend to be influenced by how patients describe their problems," he says.

"If you talk about physical symptoms - how tired you are, how you can't sleep - your doctor will usually suspect a physical cause even though those are also signs of depression.

"Be clear about your main symptom. So if feeling down or low is what's really making your life miserable, talk about that."

How can you avoid being labelled as depressed when you aren't? Do what may seem like common sense and explain your problems.

What the test ignores is that sometimes people have a very good reason to feel low: you've been sacked, for example.

A recent U.S. study has found that as many as a quarter of people currently labelled as depressed are reacting perfectly normally to stressful events.

It suggested that even psychiatrists regularly miss the broad picture. Once you've ticked enough boxes for symptoms, you get diagnosed as depressed even though you may just be sad.

So if you aren't asked the obvious question about what is going on in your life, make sure you volunteer it.

Irish Psychiatrist leading campaign against use of 'archaic' electro-shock therapy in hospitals

And now for a small bit of sanity from Ireland. As seen in the Irish Independent.

According to a leading doctor, thousands of Irish psychiatric patients experiencing psychological distress have had electric shocks of up to 400 volts administered to their brains, frequently against their will.

This controversial treatment, known as electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), works by artificially inducing epileptic fits.

Those who endorse it believe that the seizure triggers a surge of "well-being" which soothes the symptoms of the psychological distress being targeted, such as depression, schizophrenia, mania, obsessive convulsive disorders and anorexia.

The last recorded figures reveal that, in 2003, 1,483 people here were treated with ECT, 859 of whom were in the south of Ireland and 624 in the north.

Dr Michael Corry, consultant psychiatrist at the Institute of Psychosocial Medicine, contends that the state of confusion, sometimes tinged with a mild euphoria, that is regularly encountered in the aftermath of some types of head injuries, temporarily obscures the patient's original symptoms, which is then erroneously classified by psychiatrists as an "improvement".

"The fact that these results wear off is underlined by the reality that some patients have literally had hundreds of shocks. Why is this terrible and devastating human rights abuse allowed to go on?" he asks.

Dr Corry is leading the Irish campaign to abolish ECT. "It's irrational, archaic and barbaric it has no place in the 21st century" he says.

"It is universally agreed that the occurrence of seizures in a patient is always harmful to their brain. Within neurology as a speciality, every effort is made to prevent seizures but, incredibly, psychiatry stands out as the only branch of medicine that specialises in deliberately causing seizures."

ANALYSIS LIVING, PAGE 13

He first witnessed ECT being administered during his psychiatric training at St Brendan's Psychiatric Hospital in the Seventies, where the shock of what he saw caused him to faint.

"I couldn't work out how this could possibly be done to human beings," he says. "I saw it as abuse from very beginning, because it was being given to people on the premise that they had a disease of the mind. When I realised that people were basically being given it to control behaviour, it was just like the end of the world to me."

He refused to fulfill the compulsory ECT component of his course and ended up transferring to Guy's Hospital in London to complete his studies. After he qualified as a GP, and prior to embarking on his psychiatry studies, he achieved higher qualifications in obstetrics and paediatrics.

His long-held belief is that mental distress is a valid human experience that doesn't emanate from a malfunctioning, diseased brain.

He believes that abolishing ECT would allow a psychosocial, humanistic understanding of mental distress to emerge, paving the way for prevention and healing, and facilitating a person-centred approach, through counselling, cognitive therapy, and other techniques that are based on individual hearts and souls.

"Mental distress results from the problems of living," he says. "Using ECT is the equivalent of sending the TV or computer for repair if the programmes are not to one's liking."

Many studies have demonstrated that memory loss is the first obvious result of electric shock treatment, plunging the patient into a state of confusion, fear and vulnerability. Other areas of intellectual functioning are also compromised, as is the ability to experience the full range of feelings, creating a state of emotional numbness.

"To isolate a depressed, suffering human being from their thoughts, behaviours, and the workings of their world is a tragedy beyond words, as it reduces them, and the rest of us, to a chemical soup encapsulated in skin.

In this soup, there is no place for uniqueness, imagination, will, acceptance, compassion, love, peace, creativity, personal freedom and the unfathomable depths of the human spirit."

Aside from the mental damage ECT causes, brain autopsies on patients have revealed physical damage. Some elderly people have died from strokes and pneumonia in the days and weeks following a course of ECT treatment, as they are known to do after any major trauma.

"Given these effects, it would be inconceivable that anyone in their right mind would sanction such a procedure for administration to a developing foetus as it floats in fluid suspended within the uterus, with the goal of improving its 'well-being'," says Dr Corry. "You'd have to ask whether the adult brain is any less fragile? It is self-evident that ECT is unsustainable, because if it were seeking a licence today, it would be rejected on safety grounds."

"ECT is a holocaust of the brain, and a brutal final solution which must be stopped," he says. "The time to abolish electric shock treatment is now."

If you would like to share your experiences of ECT as part of a research study, please contact the Institute of Psychosocial Medicine in Dun Laoghaire (01) 2800084 or email ipmed@eircom.net. You can also visit a website, wellbeingfoundation.com, which is dedicated to the abolition of ECT

As one clever person noted:A *psychiatrist* asks "Why is this terrible and devastating human rights abuse allowed to go on?"!!!

Of interest: "I am also against the forced use of ECT on any human being." Which forced psychiatric procedures (treatments?) are you not against?

What happens when the Doctors are Crazy

A review of a BBC Documentary raising two points, the exploitation of the film makers, and the apparent incompetence of a shrink in the the British mental health system.

So, how do we all feel, knowing that somewhere in Britain is a junior doctor who has lied both about the extent of her mental illness (she hears a voice that tells her to kill herself and other people) and her refusal to take prescribed medication in order that she might keep her job at an NHS hospital? Not great, in my case.

I reserve my fury, however, not for this vulnerable young woman, but for the man who encouraged her to tell such lies - the clinical psychologist Rufus May - and for the film-maker Leo Regan, who not only brought such activities to our attention in his documentary The Doctor Who Hears Voices (21 April, 10pm), but who seemingly had no compunction about his failure to inform the relevant authorities of what was going on. I would be interested to know what the Bradford District Care Trust, May's part-time employer, makes of this project. As for Channel 4's decision to screen it, complicity in this kind of stuff is extremely serious. The channel says it is in the public interest to expose the lengths to which people will go to disguise their illness, but the time for "debate" when it comes to mental health issues ends when human lives start to be at risk - as the last Tory government found out to its cost when it introduced its "care in the community" policy.

Rufus May is a psychologist who believes, though he was diagnosed with it himself at 18, that there is no such thing as schizophrenia. He thinks that psychotic experiences are "meaningful", that people can "learn" from manic behaviour, and that the drugs used to treat severe mental illnesses simply "shut patients up". In this film, we saw him treating, in his own time, a junior doctor called Ruth. May was going to help her "recover" without the aid of drugs and thereby survive the panel that would decide if she was fit to work. His view of this panel was that she would have to lie about the voice in her head; he did not think it affected her ability to be a doctor, and believed that if she admitted to it, she would lose her job.

His approach to her care was alarming. When her delusions grew more serious - she believed that the fish in the old people's home where she worked part-time were controlling the residents' heartbeats - he took it as a sign of progress. When the voice in her head grew louder, he simply talked to it using a "radical dialogue technique" to discover its identity, as though it were a real person.

The increasingly distressed Ruth (played by an actress to protect her identity, though other footage was real and her lines came from real transcripts) briefly went missing. Did he think she'd killed herself? Oddly, May was suddenly lost for words. He didn't want to "incriminate" himself, he said. I felt like punching him, and wondered how Leo Regan, sitting there beside him, managed to desist from doing just that.

Ah, yes. Leo Regan. We never saw him, but we heard him. His voice-over made you think that he was treating the whole thing as a huge lark. When May was evasive, which was often, he would say things like "Rufus was pissed off with me" or "I knew he was bullshitting me". He did not push May to justify his regime, nor did he ask him if his work had its roots in any kind of scientific research, preferring simply to titter at his somewhat antic behaviour.

But most appalling of all was the moment when he went to see Trevor Turner, a consultant psychiatrist who disagrees with May's techniques, to talk about Ruth's case. He duly told Turner her symptoms - though he did not explain, at least not on camera, that she was a real person - and asked what he would do with such a patient. Turner said she should be detained under the Mental Health Act for her own and the public's safety. And what did Regan do? Nothing. Meanwhile, May went on "talking" to Ruth's voice. That Ruth is still - or so I read - successfully working as a doctor does not make any of the above behaviour acceptable. May and Regan were lucky, that's all. This time, the experiment didn't blow up in their faces.

The Doctor Who Hears Voices Channel 4

Psychiatrist investigated for illegal drugs and for giving a false name to police

Report from the BBC

A doctor has denied providing false personal details when he was caught with drugs at a music festival.

Police found 14 ecstasy tablets and small amounts of cannabis resin and amphetamine in Dr Fraser Gibb's car at the event in Dumfries and Galloway.

He told a General Medical Council (GMC) hearing that he initially thought the officers were security staff.

However, the Dumfriesshire doctor said he gave them full and correct personal details. The hearing continues.

Dr Gibb said he was told that if he admitted he had drugs in his possession then they would be confiscated and he could go into the Wickerman Festival in July 2006.

If drugs were found after a search he would be escorted from the premises.

Dr Gibb, 41, kept quiet as officers found the drugs in a black case on the back seat of his silver Hyundai.

Giving evidence, he said he "gradually realised" that he was dealing with police, before the illegal substances were discovered.

Robin Kitching, cross-examining for the GMC, asked: "Why didn't you tell them you had drugs?"

He replied: "I should have said that. I deeply regret it."

Mr Kitching accused him of further deceit by telling the officers his name was Fraser Duncan McKay and his address was The Old Schoolhouse, Steilston, Dumfries, when he had recently moved from there to the neighbouring The Old School.

Dr Gibb, a locum consultant psychiatrist at Crichton Royal Hospital, Dumfries, insisted he gave his full name, Fraser Duncan McKay Gibb.

Personal use

He added: "I gave them the address that all my identifiers were registered to - I told them where I worked.

"I said I was a doctor. I told them things that were likely to get me into trouble."

He was cautioned and later arrested when he admitted to officers the drugs were for his own personal use.

Dr Gibb was convicted at Kirkcudbright Sheriff Court of possessing ecstasy at the event in Dundrennan in July 2006 and was fined £400.

The GMC alleges Dr Gibb's fitness to practise is impaired because of his conviction and alleged misconduct in being misleading and dishonest with the questioning officers.

Psychiatrist 'let crazed bodybuilder free to kill and dismember two women,' tribunal hears

We often assume the psychiatrists are capable of fulfilling their duties regarding public safety at a basic level, especially regarding real, not imagined threats. It seems that our trust was unwarranted in this case involving the gruesome murder of two young women. Report from This Is London

A schizophrenic killed two women after a senior psychiatrist discharged him from hospital against the advice of other doctors and the man's own family, a medical tribunal heard yesterday.

Dr Eric Birchall, 70, released bodybuilder Mark Corner into the community, telling GPs he posed little risk to the public. But less than a year later 29-year-old Corner - who was a cannabis smoker, had a history of violence and harboured murderous thoughts - killed two prostitutes in separate attacks.

He butchered Hanane Parry, 19, and 25-yearold Pauline Stephen before dumping their body parts in bin bags in a Liverpool alleyway. Other parts were found in his freezer. Both women were so badly mutilated that police were unable to say exactly how they died.

Corner was sentenced to indefinite detention under the Mental Health Act after admitting manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Yesterday, a hearing of the General Medical Council in Manchester was told that Corner, who had mental health problems from the age of 12, had been sectioned in 2002 after trying to stab a female neighbour with a kitchen knife.

Corner told one doctor he had an "abnormal interest in girls who died and were dismembered".

Experts concluded he was likely to become dangerous if he went back to using alcohol, cannabis and cocaine. A mental health tribunal ruled that Corner, from Everton, should not be released.

But Dr Birchall agreed to discharge Corner from the Ferndale mental health unit in Liverpool less than a month later, telling his GP the risk to others was low.

Within a fortnight Corner had taken an overdose of paracetamol. He told doctors he had stopped taking medication for his schizophrenia and had begun drinking and smoking cannabis.

Corner's father pleaded with the doctors to readmit his son, but again Corner was discharged.

In the months before the killings he missed two of three outpatient appointments and was seen just once by his GP. He also admitted taking up to 70 Ecstasy tablets a week and hearing voices again.

The panel was told that Corner was arrested in July 2003 and charged with the murder of both prostitutes.

He was convicted of their manslaughter and detained indefinitely in that December.

An inquiry said Dr Birchall had committed "grave errors of judgment" when he discharged Corner. His claim that the risk was "low" was "inaccurate and misleading".

Yesterday, Craig Sephton, for the GMC, told the tribunal: "It is not part of my case to say that Dr Birchall was responsible for those murders but it is our job to find out what happened.

"We suggest that he did not devise an adequate care plan. We say that Dr Birchall did not adjust the care plan to accommodate the new features of the case."

If found guilty of misconduct Dr Birchall, who no longer works for the Mersey Care NHS Trust, could be struck off the medical register and banned from practising.

The tribunal continues.

BBC Talking Head Psychiastrist Tonmoy Sharma Is Banned From Practising In Britain - Did Studies for Eli Lilly

As Reported in the Telegraph

A psychiatrist who regularly appeared as an expert on the BBC has been struck off the medical register after he lied about his academic qualifications and performed unethical drugs tests on mentally ill patients.

Tonmoy Sharma, who was a senior lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, has been exposed as a fraud who repeatedly referred to himself as a "professor" when records show that he had never completed a PhD thesis.

Despite this, Sharma, who was registered at the Clinical Neuroscience Research Centre in Dartford, Kent, regularly used the letters PhD after his name and managed to deceive the NHS and some of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies.

He also appeared on the BBC2 series Mind of a Murderer in 2000 and was often used as an expert commentator on BBC News Online stories.

A General Medical Council panel yesterday found Sharma guilty of "serious failings of personal integrity" after hearing that he recruited mentally ill patients to test drugs without seeking proper approval.

Andrew Popat, chairman of the panel, told Sharma: "Your persistent and wide-ranging dishonesty and untruthfulness, spanning a number of years, together with your lack of insight, is so serious that it is fundamentally incompatible with your continuing to be a registered medical practitioner."

Mr Popat said Sharma, the author of several books on mental illness, had "contributed significantly towards the advancement of medical science" and was highly regarded by his colleagues.

However, after a 10-month hearing, the GMC Fitness to Practise panel found Sharma guilty of serious professional misconduct and struck him off the medical register.

The 42-year-old, who trained in India, was found to have acted unprofessionally in relation to five major studies between 1997 and 2003, involving four leading pharmaceutical companies including Eli Lilly and the Janssen Research Foundation.

He also misled the companies when he chose to use identical patients in different studies, subjecting them to MRI scans and tests that had not been approved by an ethics committee. In 2003, he recruited mental health patients in unsolicited telephone calls and without consent from their doctors. He then failed to give them proper information about the trials - one schizophrenic was simply handed a leaflet.

His misconduct was first uncovered by the drugs company Sanofi, and a complaint resulting in his temporary suspension was made to the Institute of Psychiatry in 2001, prompting an investigation.

Sharma, who represented himself at the hearing, denied the claims and insisted that he "believed in ethics in medicine".

Psychiatrist Publishes Do-It-Yourself Suicide Guide

As seen here, probably from a Dutch news report

A Netherlands psychiatrist who assisted in the suicide of a grieving mother that ultimately led to the Dutch Supreme Court ruling that the depressed should have the right to kill themselves has now published a do-it-yourself guide to committing suicide.

The guide is expected to go on sale soon in the European nation and it contains detailed information on how people can use drugs to kill themselves.

It also contains information on how to perform other acts of suicide using starvation techniques and describes the quickest and least painful ways to do so.

"Doctors learn little about this subject during their training," author and psychiatrist Boudewijn Chabot says, according to the London Telegraph. "This book is for people who want to make their own decisions about ending their own lives."

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal in the Netherlands and, together, there are already about 4,400 suicides annually.

For noted bioethics watchdog Wesley Smith, that number is high enough already without the publication of a book encouraging more deaths.

"Not content with thousands of euthanasia and assisted suicide deaths a year, the Dutch are about to have access to a suicide guide," he said. "The Dutch have a high suicide rate already."

About Chabot, Smith said he's concerned such a prominent euthanasia advocate would be encouraging more people to kill themselves.

"The author is a true villain in the modern story of euthanasia and assisted suicide," Smith said.

Smith indicated the guide is the slippery slope of euthanasia that promotes death as a solution to any depression or medical ailments.

"The culture of death is like heroin: Once you start to mainline, it is never enough," Smith concluded.

Shocking cost of mental health assesment

People are shocked, simply shocked, over the the staggering amount of extra income psychiatrists are making as part of the routine work they do for the work of committing someone involuntarily to a mental institution. As reported in the Norwich Evening News

Doctors are paid an additional fee of £175.97 for every assessment they carry out under the Mental Health Act, new figures have revealed.

Around £200,000 is paid out each year by the Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health Foundation Trust in addition to doctors' salaries when they carry out an assessment to determine whether an individual should be “sectioned”, meaning to compulsorily detain them.

The figures revealed to the Evening News through a request under the Freedom of Information Act, show from April 2005 to March 2006 £198,682 was paid out to doctors, £208,910 the following year and from April last year already £170,514 has been paid.

A person is sectioned if they are perceived to be a threat to themselves or other people. Two approved doctors, or a doctor and social worker has to be present. One of the doctors is usually a psychiatrist and the other - or social worker - is someone who knows the patient.

Sandra Flanagan, deputy chief executive from mental health charity MIND, said the figure “seems a lot of money” and could pay for an assertive outreach team of six people working with 20 patients.

She added: “I'm quite shocked by the figures.

“There should be some review of how much doctors are getting paid. They can demand any amount because of their professional status. That money could be much used to help people - £200,000 a year could run an intense assertive outreach team regularly supporting about 20 people. That would give people home visits and pay for social inclusion projects.

“It should be taken that a doctor should only be paid for their expenses.”

The trust argue that the approved doctors are “not paid twice” and the assessments take place outside their normal working hours, but they are in addition to their salary.

Dr Hadrian Ball, medical director at Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Assessments under the Mental Health Act can only be carried out by specially trained and experienced doctors, who have expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. Such doctors are 'approved' by the Secretary of State under the terms of Section 12 of the Mental Health Act 1983.

“Doctors are paid the assessment fee only when the work involved falls outside of their normal contractual duties. The cost per assessment has been determined through national negotiations, between the British Medical Association and the NHS.”

But Dr Ian Gibson, Labour MP for Norwich North, said more needs to be looked into these fees - and other fees in addition to doctors' salaries.

He added: “This needs to be taken up within the department of health at a time when we are trying to find money.

“Doctors get a lot of extra money - that isn't really known about. If they get to a patient before they've died by get a fee known as ash cash - there are all sorts of extras.”

Schoolboy found hanged in his bedroom after Ritalin prescription was increased

A report from the Daily Mail.

A schoolboy who was taking Ritalin has been found hanged in his bedroom.

Anthony Cole, 15, had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and recently had his prescription for the drug increased.

Recent research claims that Ritalin, also used to combat hyperactivity in children, has led to many developing "manic and psychotic" symptoms.

The drug has previously faced criticism for side effects that include mood swings and sleeping difficulties.

Anthony's father said he had noticed the schoolboy becoming snappy and acting as if in a trance shortly before he died.

Days earlier, he had asked his mother how to write a will and enquired about life insurance.

On Saturday, an hour after cuddling her and telling his family he loved them, Anthony was found dead by his father.

Colin, 51, of Conniburrow, Milton Keynes, said yesterday: "He was just so cheerful and always smiling, but I think he bottled a lot of his feelings up.

"He had said he was worried about his GCSEs and that bigger boys at school had been picking on him.

"He had his problems but on school holidays he seemed so much calmer and happier.

"But when he went back to school after the recent half-term break he became really snappy and tense. Sometimes he acted like he was in a trance."

"He was a very inquisitive boy, he was interested in electronics and mechanics. On Saturday he was watching me fix a plug and asking lots of questions.

"He disappeared to his bedroom and about an hour later we called him down for lunch. But when he didn't reply I went upstairs and found him hanging there."

Anthony's mother Tina, 45, added: "I was peeling potatoes with him when he asked me about making a will.

"I was really shocked but I thought it was just his inquisitive nature. We have a lot of unanswered questions.

"Sadly Anthony has taken many of the answers with him."

Anthony, who leaves his twin brother and sister, ten, and sister, 13, was prescribed Ritalin six years ago when he was diagnosed with ADHD. An inquest into his death will take place in June.

Two years ago, an investigation by the U.S. authorities said the drug should carry a warning that those taking it could suffer from mania and aggression.

The drug and related brands have been blamed for 11 children's deaths in the UK.

A patient recalls her “nightmare” time at Whitchurch Hospital

From this Report

Whitchurch Hospital celebrates its 100th anniversary next month, but the outdated unit will be closed in the next few years. As patients and staff are encouraged to write about their memories of the old hospital, Gillian Brightmore recalls her ‘nightmare’ as a patient at Whitchurch

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Whitchurch Hospital in 2006 was a place where the staff receive therapy and the patients do not.

The word psychotherapy is never mentioned to patients there, let alone cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). There is a strict drug programme relentlessly controlled and monitored by staff, who are more like jailers than carers. Patients suspected of not taking their medication are searched.

The wards, even unsecured ones, are locked. Patients have to ask permission to go outside and then have to wait for long periods before being allowed to leave.

I saw patients being physically restrained, brought to the ground and forcibly injected. This was not an unusual occurrence.

The high point of the patient’s week was the ward round. Then the consultant psychiatrist entered the ward with an entourage of accompanying staff to be entertained like royalty by a subservient nursing staff providing them with copious tea and biscuits.

The patients, after a considerable wait, would then be summoned into a very small room to be seated in a corner and then scrutinised by at least six of these professionals.

I believe these meetings were designed to intimidate the patient and to demonstrate the complete power that the consultant has over another human being.

It was devastating – I was personally insulted, told that I did not want to get well and that I was a burden to my son and was upsetting him.

It was then suggested that I sell my house and go into residential accommodation immediately.

I was also asked questions such as who is the Prime Minister of the UK? What date was it and asked to draw the face of a clock with the numerals and write in a time.

These professionals have the power to detain you for long periods of time or to send you to yet another ward for more treatment.

A patient could be moved at a moment’s notice from their ward to another – often late at night if a bed was said to be needed – without any sort of explanation and often to dormitory wards where the only privacy was a curtain around a bed and where women had to walk through a men’s dormitory to their space.

The toilets and showers were dirty, smelling of urine, and the floors of showers and toilets were littered with cigarette ends. The bathroom itself was kept locked.

Patients smoked openly at night in their beds. There was no attempt to stop this happening.

Time dragged on these wards. There was nothing to do there except watch television or to take part in ward activities, such as listening to CDs or playing bingo.

Walks in the grounds usually had to be accompanied and often staff were too busy to take patients out at all. There was little fresh air as many of the windows did not open and the doors were always kept locked.

The extent to which staff controlled patients was evident in that the TV remote control was kept in the office and patients were not allowed to use it.

Fire alarms periodically electrified the wards with penetrating noise that went on for several minutes at a time, often several times a day.

The food was conveyed from a faraway kitchen by electric trolleys and was congealed and inedible on arrival.

Often the staff did not know what they were serving and laughingly told us so.

There were perhaps two or three bananas or apples sent up to a ward for 15 people – fresh vegetables or salad were rarely seen.

This was not One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but was in Cardiff in 2006. I am extremely angry that myself, and other people, were treated in this dehumanising and degrading fashion.

I was patronised particularly because I was an older woman and not heterosexual. I felt emasculated and wanted to scream. But for the visits of my son, I would have lost all sense of myself.

This is still going on in the 21st century.

There are now plans to close the hospital over the next three years, but a new building will not alter the inbred culture that exists in these mental hospitals.

Staff there refer to the revolving door syndrome – that is patients come in, stay a while, leave and then come back again because they have not received the treatment they need. I myself know of a least two subsequent suicides after I left of young men from that ward.

It is a tragedy that adequate care is not given to those seeking help.

Mental illness is an affliction not a punishment. It is a psychological problem that can afflict anyone whoever they are.

Staff need to be re-educated and trained in therapies such as CBT – one nurse I met was an ex-miner with only a few days training before coming onto a ward dealing with seriously ill people.

Staff should be vetted and rigorously scrutinised before being allowed to work on such wards.

Whitchurch Hospital is a place of endless corridors punctuated by locked wards like the Gates of Hell. I was there for four months. One lasting image I have is of a face pressed up against a window pane of one of those locked doors and the smell of stale food, cigarette smoke and urine with the jangle of keys.

This is in Cardiff in the 21st century. Somehow I survived. Others did not.

Gillian Brightmore, a former teacher who lives in Cardiff, was admitted to Whitchurch Hospital after suffering from depression. She is also a member of the reference panel of the Mental Health Commission

The NHS had a response which is an appalling example of whitewash of the offensiveness of the wierd psychiatric culture obviously present there.

Irish Mental health tribunals have cost over €10 million to date

An interesting story, but what is utterly missed is the point that this is the cost in trying to establish at least some justice in the Irish system of involuntary commitment to mental hospitals. The tone is slightly weird, like this is some unwanted expense. From the Irish Medical News

Over €10 million has been spent on mental health tribunals since they were first established in 2006, it has emerged.

In response to a recent Parliamentary Question, Minister for State at the Department of Health and Children, Dr Jimmy Devins stated that €1,001,174 was spent in 2006 and €9,008,051 was spent in 2007 on tribunals.

The Mental Health Comm­ission did not give a further breakdown of the figures when requested by IMN.

A total of 2,423 tribunals were held during this period, meaning that the average cost of each tribunal is approximately €4,130.

The figures do not include a number of outstanding attendance fees, which have yet to be submitted by mental health tribunal panel members to the Mental Health Commission or the overheads associated with the administration of the mental health tribunals by the Commission, according to Minister Devins. The costs of the tribunals are met from the budget of the Mental Health Commission.

Consultant psychiatrist Prof Patricia Casey has branded the figures as “extraordinary”.

She told IMN that it was of the utmost importance that the Mental Health Commission provide a detailed breakdown of the figures given the costs involved. In particular, Prof Casey said in the interests of transparency and accountability it should be reported how much is being spent on solicitors fees.

Out of the 2,248 hearings held in 2007, 256 cases were revoked at hearing.

Study shows 80% of suicides in Sweden are by people on anti-depressants.

As reported on Natural News

A Swedish writer has accused the National Board of Health and Welfare (NBHW) of covering up evidence suggesting a connection between psychiatric drugs and suicide. Under a recent law, Swedish health-care providers must fill out reports on all suicides committed by patients under their care or within four weeks of a health care visit. The reports are then sent to the NBHW, which compiles and analyzes them.

Recently, the NBHW released the first report analyzing the 367 suicides recorded in 2006. "Not a single word is written about the most compelling fact: Well over 80 percent of persons killing themselves were treated with psychiatric drugs," Janne Larson writes.

According to data received via a Freedom of Information Act request, more than 80 percent of the 367 suicides had been receiving psychiatric medications. More than half of these were receiving antidepressants, while more than 60 percent were receiving either antidepressants or antipsychotics. There is no mention of this either in the NBHW paper or in major Swedish media reports about the health care suicides.

Why the truth won't be reported in the mainstream media

"It was contrary to the best interests of Big Pharma and biological psychiatrists" to expose the information, Larson writes. "It blew the myths of antidepressants and neuroleptics [antipsychotics] as suicide protecting drugs to pieces. It would also have hurt the career of many medical journalists to take up this subject; journalists who for years have made their living by writing marketing articles about new antidepressant drugs."

These statements are quite true. The conspiracy of silence between Big Pharma and the mainstream media is now so strong that accurate news about the dangers of psychiatric drugs is rarely reported. As we recently saw in the death of Heath Ledger, the mainstream media is quick to blame the victim, but slow to realize that the real cause of these behavioral problems rests with the chemicals that alter brain function (and therefore alter behavior).

Evidence has emerged that a class of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) actually increases the risk of suicide in those who take them. While such claims have been hotly disputed by the pharmaceutical industry and many psychiatrists, experimental, epidemiological and case study evidence continues to emerge that reinforces such a link. The evidence suggests that those taking SSRIs are approximately twice as likely to commit suicide as those not taking such medications. This risk increase appears to be independent of the specific diagnosis or other underlying health factors.

Even worse, recent research published in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS Medicine reveals that antidepressant drugs don't work any better than placebo at reducing depression. This study looked at all the clinical trials conducted on SSRIs, not just the ones selected by drug companies for publication. It reveals that SSRI drug manufacturers committed scientific fraud in censoring studies that did not show positive results. Now, the whole world knows that the disease mongering and hype behind antidepressant drugs was based on pure scientific fraud.

Links between SSRIs and suicide

The link between SSRI use and suicide in youths has been firmly established enough that the United States and United Kingdom have licensed only one such drug (fluoxetine, marketed under the brand name Prozac) for use by those under the age of 18. In the United Kingdom, off-label use by children is blatantly illegal. In the United States, the FDA requires a "black box" warning that SSRIs may increase the risk of suicide in those under the age of 18, but that warning is routinely ignored, and hundreds of millions of doses of Prozac have been taken by children and teens.

A "black box" warning is the most severe warning the FDA can issue without withdrawing a product from the market. In December 2006, an FDA advisory panel recommended increasing the age on the SSRI black box warning to 25 years of age. In reality, the black box warning is a way for the FDA to allow dangerous drugs to remain on the market: It gives them an excuse to say, "We warned you!"

The dangers of Prozac

Prozac has been found to increase the risk of aggressive and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. When the drug was first submitted to the FDA for approval in 1985, the agency's then-chief safety investigator, Richard Kapit, suggested that the drug bear a "labeling warning [for] the physician that such signs and symptoms of depression may be exacerbated by this drug." In 2004, the FDA finally added the labeling requirement.

Antipsychotics may also increase suicide risk by inducing a condition known as akathisia — a subjective, often-misdiagnosed feeling of inner restlessness that can range from mild anxiety to a feeling of overwhelming doom. Akathisia can also be induced by certain SSRIs, including Prozac and Paxil. A 2006 study published in PLoS Medicine concluded that akathisia induced by antipsychotic use is significantly correlated with suicide, and that the condition appeared to be overwhelmingly more likely in patients taking SSRIs than in those taking a placebo, with 10 times as many patients on SSRIs exhibiting symptoms severe enough that investigators were forced to pull them from the study.

Yet Larson alleges that the Swedish government has failed to investigate any potential link between SSRIs or antipsychotics and suicide. The investigation form that the government sends to local healthcare providers to fill out after a suicide does not contain any questions about drug treatment.

According to Larson, a truly objective investigation would have to look at whether the patients exhibited symptoms that could be attributed to akathisia (which is nearly always a drug side effect) and whether suicide was preceded by an increase or abrupt drop in drug dosage.

"[NBHW] claimed: 'Every investigated suicide where one can see flaws that can be taken care of, can contribute to the prevention of further suicides,'" Larson writes. "Yet no investigation at all was done in the suicide-inducing effect of antidepressants and neuroleptics."

Suicides and violent behavior

It is important to note that nearly every school shooting that has happened in the United States over the last decade has been conducted by young males who were taking antidepressant drugs. The drugs not only cause suicidal behavior, they also seem to promote extreme violence towards other individuals. In most school shooting cases, the young men committing the violence also committed suicide after killing classmates and teachers. These are classic signs of antidepressant use.

Dr. Fred Baughman (www.ADHDfraud.org) has spoken extensively about the link between antidepressants and violent behavior, and has accused the drug companies of lying to the public about depression in order to sell more antidepressant drugs. His most recent article is published at OpEdNews

Married prison psychologist fell pregnant after affair with mentally-ill inmate

Just in time for Valentine's Day: A female psychologist falls in love. She's pregnant, she wants to marry her lover and keep the child. The Twist? He's her crazy patient serving time in the prison where she works. A report from the Daily Mail

A married psychologist is about to have a baby by a mentally ill prisoner after one-to-one therapy sessions, a court heard yesterday.

Stephanie Reeves, 30, had sex with the convicted criminal in the lavatories of a secure hospital unit while escorting him to the gym.

Reeves - whose husband also worked at the unit - said she loves the prisoner and plans to raise the child with him if he is ever considered safe enough to be released.

He is currently being treated for paranoid schizophrenia at Ashworth secure hospital, where patients include Moors murderer Ian Brady.

A judge told her she had committed "a grave breach of trust" by having sex with the patient, but because of their feelings for one another he decided to have "mercy" and not jail her.

She was given a 12-month suspended sentence after admitting sexual activity with a mentally-ill person in her care.

The heavily-pregnant defendant sobbed in the dock at Preston Crown Court as details of her bizarre relationship unfolded.

A psychology graduate, she was a highly-regarded counsellor at Guild Lodge medium secure unit when rumours began to spread about her relationship with the prisoner, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

After being jailed for offences including burglary, the man, a 20-year-old from Fleetwood whose father has a conviction for manslaughter, had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and sent to Ashworth in Merseyside.

But his symptoms had improved and he was transferred to Guild Lodge, near Preston. There he had therapy sessions with Reeves, who had recently separated from her husband of one year, support worker David Lea.

She denied having a sexual relationship with the prisoner when confronted by managers in June last year.

But a few days later she resigned, handing bosses a written confession that they had sex on June 23.

Records confirmed there was a 25-minute period when he was in her sole care.

"He made advances towards her," said her barrister, Bill Swalwell.

"He went to kiss her, she immediately stood back, he went to kiss her again, and then she responded."

Reeves - now using her maiden name - was arrested and charged under the Sexual Offences Act.

She reportedly told colleagues: "I want a baby - I don't know why my husband doesn't. I am keeping this child."

The court heard that the father of the baby, a boy due in two or three weeks, had since been sent back to Ashworth after his mental health worsened and he became increasingly difficult to control.

Nevertheless Mr Swalwell said Reeves intended to set up home with him if and when he is released and raise the child together.

He was said to regard the relationship as "the best thing that has ever happened to him", giving him an incentive to work with those treating him.

His mother, who sat in the public benches during the hearing, is supportive of their relationship, added Mr Swalwell.

The sex took place when Reeves was "lonely, vulnerable, had low self- esteem and was not thinking clearly".

Judge Norman Wright said sentencing guidelines for such a "grave breach of trust" required him to jail her.

However the circumstances were so exceptional that he was suspending her sentence for two years, "mercy still having a part to play".

He added that the supposed victim was in reality "far from aggrieved - he's only aggrieved by you being prosecuted.

"He's proud that you're expecting his child and wants to continue his relationship with you once he regains his mental health."

Standing in the dock with one hand cupped beneath her prominent bump, Reeves, from Wigan, tearfully nodded as the judge said he was confident she would not offend again.

She was ordered to sign the sex offender register.

Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the unit, said it regarded such cases as "extremely serious" and had co- operated fully with police.

Maker of 'happy pill' Seroxat is sued by man who killed wife while on drug

from this Report

Murderer Colin Dorey, who battered his wife to death with a hammer, is suing pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline over his use of the anti-depressant Seroxat.

From his cell at Gartree prison in Leicestershire, Dorey, 48, has joined nearly 500 other users of the drug in a lawsuit against the multi-national, each seeking compensation of up to £50,000.

Their case is funded by legal aid at an estimated cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds to the taxpayer.

Dorey, a chef, was jailed for life in August 2002 for murdering his wife Christine, 37, at their home in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, while their three young children slept upstairs.

At his trial Dorey, who will be eligible for parole in 2011, admitted manslaughter and told police he had "just flipped" because he believed his wife was having an affair.

She was hit at least ten times with a club hammer.

When Dorey was found in his car shortly afterwards, he had a packet of Seroxat tablets with him. He had dialled 999 to tell police what he had done.

His claim is part of a £30million damages case against the makers of the drug, which is supposed to boost confidence and happiness.

Law firm Hugh James, on behalf of the claimants, alleges Seroxat is "defective" under the 1987 Consumer Protection Act.

Solicitor Mark Harvey said: "All the claimants allege they tried to withdraw from Seroxat and have suffered discontinuation syndrome."

Dorey cannot claim compensation from GSK through alleging Seroxat led to a state of mind that caused him to kill his wife because a criminal act cannot be the basis for such a claim.

Since it was first prescribed in 1990, Seroxat has been linked to at least 50 suicides. GSK, which makes up to £1billion a year from the drug, has been accused of failing to act on warnings that it could have serious side-effects, including personality changes.

In 2003 it was banned for under-18s amid concerns it contributed to suicide among adolescents with depression.

The same year a man arrested for armed robbery had charges dropped after medical reports concluded his behaviour could have been altered by Seroxat withdrawal symptoms.

[...]

Psychiatrist was insane at time of murder

We somehow suspect that the shrink had been well medicated with anti-depressents, whose side effects include, among other things, homicidal thoughts and ideas, depending on the particular drug involved. Report from the BBC

A psychiatrist who drowned her daughter in a bath has been found not guilty of murder, by reason of insanity.

Lynn Gibbs, 47, admitted killing her 16-year-old daughter Ciara at their home in Gowran, County Kilkenny, in November 2006.

Both the prosecution and defence had argued at Dublin's Circuit Criminal Court that she had been suffering from a mental disorder at the time.

It took the jury 20 minutes to reach its conclusion.

Mrs Gibbs had taken an overdose of sleeping tablets and anti-depressants in an attempt to kill herself after drowning her daughter Ciara.

'Clearly depressed'

The jury had heard earlier from fellow psychiatrist and friend Dr Marese Cheasty, who had visited the house on the night Ciara died.

Dr Cheasty said although Mrs Gibbs was clearly depressed and her thinking distorted, she never thought she was a danger to herself or anyone else.

She said she had urged her to go into hospital, but Mrs Gibbs did not want to because she wanted to be there for Ciara, whom she feared was suffering from anorexia.

The court also heard from Mrs Gibbs' younger sister and her stepmother, who both told of their concerns for Lynn and Ciara's wellbeing in the preceeding weeks.

Ciara's father and brother found her body lying on the floor of an en-suite bathroom, while Mrs Gibbs was lying on the bedroom floor.

Mr Gibbs tried to resuscitate his daughter, but could not.

Mrs Gibbs told gardai two months later that she remembered running a bath and pushing her daughter under the water.

There are many more details in this report