The Link Between Violence and Psychiatric Drugs

Given today's (April 16th, 2007) tragic fatal shootings in Virgina, it seems timely to take note on the following collection of facts. We do not have, at this time, any details behind the identity or the motivations of the shooter.

While the shootings might very well be due to any number of causes, we would not be surprised if there were psychiatric drugs involved.

Based On information seen here: and elsewhere.

Be sure to visit the SSRI Stories website which has a moderately complete list of over 1500 deaths associated with various psychiatric drugs

---

In 1964 A paper published in The American Journal of Psychiatry found that major tranquilizers ( Thorazine, Haldol, Mellaril etc.) can "produce an acute psychotic reaction in an individual not previously psychotic.

In 1970 a textbook on the side effects of psychiatric drugs pointed out the potential for violence from these drugs stating, "Indeed, even acts of violence such as murder and suicide have been attributed to the rage reactions induced by chlordiazepoxide (Librium) and diazepam (Valium)."

In 1975 a research paper described a negative effect from the major tranquilizers called "akathisia" (from the Greek a - meaning "without" or "not" and akathisia meaning "sitting".) Akathisia is a drug-induced insanity which was first recognized as an inability of people taking the drugs to sit still comfortably.

In 1984 a study of Xanax reported, "Extreme anger and hostile behavior emerged from eight of the first 80 patients we treated with alprazolam (Xanax)."

In 1985 an investigation into Xanax, reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry, claimed that more than half (58 percent) of the treated patients experienced serious "dyscontrol", i.e. violence and loss of control compared with only eight percent who were given a placebo.

In 1985 another article published in the American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry described five cases of "extreme acts of physical violence" due to akathisia caused by Haldol. These cases included acts of extreme, senseless, bizarre and brutal violence.

On March 6, 1985, Atlanta postal worker Steven W. Brownlee, pulled a pistol from his pocket and shot and killed a supervisor and a clerk. Another clerk was wounded. Brownlee had received treatment and psychotropic drugs at the Grady Memorial Psychiatric Unit.

On November 20, 1986: 14-year-old Rod Mathews beat a classmate to death with a bat in the woods near his home in Canton, Mass. He had been prescribed Ritalin since the third grade.

On April 23, 1987: William Cruse was charged with killing six people in a shooting rampage in Palm Bay, Florida. Cruse had been seeing a Kentucky psychiatrist and stated he had been taking psychiatric drugs for several years.

On November 26, 1987 Bartley Dobben killed his two young children by casting them in a 1,300 degree foundry ladle. He had been placed on a regimen of psychiatric drugs in 1985

On May 20, 1988, Laurie Dann walked into a Winnetka, Illinois second grade classroom carrying three pistols and began shooting innocent little children, killing one and wounding five others before killing herself. Subsequent blood tests revealed that both Lithium and the antidepressant Anafranil were in her bloodstream at the time the murder was committed.

On September 26, 1988, 19-year-old James Wilson took a .22 caliber revolver into an elementary school in Greenwood, South Carolina and started shooting schoolchildren, killing two 8-year-old girls and wounding seven other children and two teachers. Wilson had been in and out of the hands of psychiatrists for years and within 8 months of the killings he had been on several psychiatric drugs which can generate violent behavior. Since the age of 14, he had been given psychiatric drugs, including Xanax, Valium, Thorazine and Haldol.

On January 17, 1989, Patrick Purdy opened fire on a school yard full of young children in Stockton, California. During his vicious and unprovoked assault, Purdy killed five school children and wounded 30 others. Purdy then killed himself. During the two years prior to the murders of the Stockton children, Purdy had been on two strong psychiatric drugs of categories known to cause violence.

In 1991, at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, Dr. William Wirshing, a psychiatrist at UCLA, reported that five patients appeared to have developed akathisia from Prozac. Dr. Wirshing believed the akathisia had “led them all to contemplate suicide.”

On April 28, 1992, Kenneth Seguin drugged his two children, aged 7 and 5, took them to a pond, slashed their wrists and dumped their bodies in the water. He then drove home and killed his wife with an ax while she slept. He was on Prozac at the time

In November 1992, Lynwood Drake III, in San Luis Obisbo and Morro Bay, California, shot and killed six people with a hand gun before he killed himself. Metabolized Prozac and Valium were both found in his system

In December 1993, Steven Leith of Chelsea, Michigan, walked back into a school meeting and fatally shot the school superintendent and wounded two others including a fellow teacher. He was on Prozac at the time of the shootings

In 1995 16-year-old Brian Pruitt fatally stabbed his grandparents. He had a history of psychiatric treatment and had been prescribed psychiatric drugs.

On November 3, 1995, Sergeant Steven B. Christian, a twenty-five-year commended veteran of the Dallas police force drove to a police sub-station and seriously wounded an officer outside in his attempt to get inside and shoot others. Christian was shot and killed by two fellow Dallas police officers. The autopsy revealed high levels of an antidepressant in his blood

February 19, 1996: 10-year-old Timmy Becton grabbed his 3-year-old niece as a shield and aimed a shotgun at a Sheriff's deputy who had accompanied a truant officer to his Florida home. Becton had been taken to a psychiatrist in January and had been put on a psychiatric drug.48

May 25, 1997 While on vacation in Las Vegas, 18-year-old Jeremy Strohmeyer raped and murdered a 7-year-old girl in the ladies’ rest room in a casino. He had been diagnosed with ADD and prescribed Dexedrine. He had begun taking the drug a week before the killing.

September 27, 1997: 16-year-old Sam Manzie raped and strangled another boy to death. At the time of the killing the younger boy had been selling candy door to door for the local PTA. Manzie was under psychiatric “care” and was being “medicated.”

October 1st, 1997: 16-year-old Luke Woodham stabbed his mother--50-year-old Mary Woodham--to death and then went to his high school in Pearl Mississippi where he shot nine people killing two teenage girls and wounding seven others. Published reports say he was on Prozac.

December 1, 1997: Michael Carneal, a troubled 14-year-old, killed three students and wounded five others at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky.

1998, there were three events in which boys, one as young as 11, killed classmates and teachers.

February, 1998 a young man in Huntsville, Alabama on Ritalin went psychotic chopping up his parents with an ax and also killing one sibling and almost murdering another.

March 6, 1998: Mathew Beck, a lottery accountant in Connecticut, reported promptly to his job, hung up his coat and methodically gunned down four of his bosses, one of whom he chased through a parking lot before he turned the gun on himself. Beck had been seeing a psychiatrist and taking three types of “medication."

March 24, 1998 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, 11-year-old Andrew Golden and 14-year-old Mitchell Johnson shot 15 people killing four students, one teacher, and wounding 10 others.13 According to one report, the boys were believed to be on Ritilan.

May 21, 1998: Springfield, Oregon: 15-year-old Kip Kinkel murdered his own parents and then proceeded to school where he opened fire on students in the cafeteria, killing two and wounding 22. Kinkel had been on Prozac.

May 28, 1998: Brynn Hartman murdered her husband, comic Phil Hartman, then committed suicide. She had been prescribed and had been taking the antidepressant drug Zoloft, which the coroner found in her system along with alcohol and cocaine

September, 1998, a study published in The Journal of Forensic Science found that of 392 youth suicides in Paris between 1989 and 1996, 35% used to take psychoactive drugs.

April 16, 1999: 15-year-old Shawn Cooper of Notus, Idaho took a 12-guage shot gun to school and started firing, injuring one student and holding the school hostage for about 20 minutes. Terrified students ran for their lives, some barricading themselves in classrooms. Cooper had been taking Ritalin when he fired the shotgun's rounds.

April 20, 1999: Columbine, Colorado: 18-year-old Eric Harris was on the antidepressant Luvox when he and his partner Dylan Klebold killed twelve classmates and a teacher before taking his own life in the bloodiest school massacre in history. The coroner confirmed that the antidepressant was in his system through toxicology reports while Dylan Klebold's autopsy was never made public.

April 29 1999: A 14 year old boy shot two children, killing one, at W.R. Myers High School in Taber Alberta. He was student of the school who was seeing a psychiatrist who prescribed him Dexadrine just prior to the shooting.

May 4, 1999: Steven Allen Abrams rammed his car into a preschool playground in Costa Mesa, California, killing two and injuring five. He had been placed on probation in 1994 which required him to see a psychiatrist and take Lithium

May 20, 1999: Conyers, Georgia: 15-year-old T.J. Solomon was being treated with a mix of antidepressants when he opened fire on and wounded 6 of his classmates.

March 5, 2001, Charles Williams, 15, killed two students and wounded 13 others at Santana High School in Santee, California

March 7, 2000: Williamsport, Pennsylvania: 14-year-old Elizabeth Bush was on the antidepressant Prozac when she blasted away at fellow students in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, wounding one.

May 26, 2000: Nathaniel Brazill, 13, killed his English teacher on the last day of classes in Lake Worth, Florida.

In 2000, a 6-year-old who shot and killed another 6-year-old at Buell Elementary School in Mount Morris Township, Michigan

March 22, 2001: El Cajon, California: 18-year-old Jason Hoffman was on two antidepressants, Effexor and Celexa, when he opened fire at his California high school wounding five. Hoffman had also undergone an "anger management" program.

April 10, 2001: Wahluke, Washington: 16-year-old Cory Baadsgaard took a rifle to his high school, and held 23 classmates and a teacher hostage while on a high dose of the antidepressant Effexor.

In 2003, two students were killed at Rocori High School in Cold Spring, Minnesota by a fellow student, age 15. He is awaiting trial.

March 21, 2005: Red Lake Indian Reservation, Minnesota: 16-year-old Native American Jeff Weise, reportedly under the influence of the antidepressant Prozac, went on a shooting rampage at home and at his school, killing nine people and wounding five before committing suicide.

And now, sadly, we add to this very incomplete list:

April 16, 2007: Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a student at Virgina Tech shoots down and kills over 30 people on the Virginia Tech campus. He had been troubled, and had been on medication for depression.

California child molestation specialist accused of Psychiatry

As seen on the Spoof website

An accomplished California child molester and former president of the American National Academy of Child and Adolescent Molestation has been arrested amid allegations he once claimed to be a noted psychiatrist and psychoanalyzed vulnerable young males.

Dr William Ayres Rock, 75, was arrested Thursday in San Mateo and charged with 14 felony counts of conduct unbecoming.

Ayres Rock said he officially hanged up his boots last year and vehemently protested his innocence.

He told arresting officers by way of mitigation that in 2002 he had been honored by the San Mateo board of supervisors with a lifetime achievement award for tireless efforts to improve the lives of child molesters and their internet support systems.

"Why would I have bothered dabbling with such a lowlife profession as psychiatry? I ask you."

But countless victims of his heinous actions have come forward and testified that he messed with their brains.

"That's what really screwed me up," said one of the appellants. "My mind felt like it had been raped by some prying old nutter."

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for next week.

April 2007 Big Pharma Litigation Update - Drugs (Part II)

From the Lawyers and Settlements website

The anti-epileptic drug, Depakote (valproate), marketed by Abbott Laboratories, is one of the most heavily prescribed medications for off-label use. Experts say the evidence of harm caused by Depakote is just beginning to emerge.

According to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania psychiatrist, Dr Stefan Kruszewski, a recognized expert on psychotropic drugs, "we can anticipate a continuing series of tragic outcomes from the massive overuse of Depakote, secondary not only to birth defects and death, but also due to anemias, hepatic disease, obesity, diabetes type II, pancreatitis and other serious systemic and neurological dysfunctions."

Bayer is under fire for hiding the adverse effects of the anti-clotting drug, Trasylol, used in heart surgery, and will no doubt be hit with plenty of lawsuits in the not to distant future, considering that Dr Dennis Mangano, the lead author of new study in the February 7, 2007, Journal of the American Medical Association, says that the Trasylol may be responsible for 10,000 deaths over five years.

On December 15, 2006, the FDA announced new labeling for Trasylol, and said a study suggests that, in addition to serious kidney damage, Trasylol may increase the chance for death, congestive heart failure (a weakening of the heart), and strokes.

Because Trasylol is administered during surgery, many victims may not even realize they have been injured by the drug. But plenty have, according to Dr Mangano, who says that in 2006, Trasylol, was administered to 246,000 patients.

Another drug on the legal chopping block is the Parkinson's drug, Permax. As far back as December 2002, doctors at the Mayo Clinic reported heart valve disease in 3 patients who had been taking Permax, similar to damage caused by the Fen-Phen combination.

In 2004, HealthDay News reported that a study had confirmed previous findings that the drug could damage heart valves and surgery would be needed to correct it. Two new studies in the January 4, 2007, New England Journal of Medicine, report that the number of Permax patients who have developed valve damage is higher than expected.

One study, which included 155 patients taking various Parkinson's drugs, and 90 healthy patients in a comparison group, and found moderate to severe valve problems in more than 23% of the patients on Permax, compared to less than 6% in the comparison group.

The second study found Permax users were 5 to 7 times more likely to have leaky heart valves than patients taking other types of Parkinson's drugs, and patients taking the highest doses of Permax had a 37 times greater risk.

"This is not a rare side effect," says Dr Bryan Roth, a professor at the University of North Carolina, who wrote an editorial accompanying the reports in the NEJM.

"That's an extraordinarily high incidence," he warns. "That makes this a serious problem."

Heart valve damage is a life-threatening condition and costly to treat. Replacement requires open heart surgery, where the breastbone is divided, the heart is stopped, and blood is sent through a heart-lung machine, according to the Texas Heart Institute. No drug can reverse valve damage, making replacement surgery the only option. Medical experts are advising all Permax patients to undergo testing for valve damage.

The drug was introduced to the US market by Eli Lilly, but Valeant Pharmaceuticals now sells Permax. On March 29, 2007, Permax was pulled off the market after the FDA reviewed new information that associates it with heart problems.

During the last 2 decades, the antidepressants, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, have been prescribed for more unapproved uses than any other class of drugs in history. A June 2005, study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, found that 75% of SSRI prescriptions written were for unapproved uses.

SSRIs have now been linked to suicidality, extreme violence and homicide, several life-threatening birth defects, abnormal uterine or gastrointestinal bleeding, a decrease in bone mineral density, fertility problems, sexual dysfunction, and a severe withdrawal syndrome.

On April 10, 2004, the British Medical Journal, criticized the authors of studies on SSRI's for exaggerating the benefits and downplaying the harm, including suicidality, and discussed a study of 93 children on Paxil that produced 11 serious adverse events, including 7 hospitalizations, compared to only 2 in children in the placebo group.

The Paxil suicide risk is not limited to children. An August 22, 2005, study by Norwegian researchers of over 1,500 adults, found 7 Paxil patients attempted suicide compared to only 1 attempt in the group on a placebo, and recommended that warnings not to prescribe Paxil to children should also apply to adults.

According to Forest Lab's Annual Report filed on June 14, 2006, the company is a named defendant in approximately 25 lawsuits, with the majority involving the company's top selling SSRI drugs, Celexa or Lexapro, for inducing suicidality.

A wrongful death lawsuit was filed in September 2005, by the Pogust & Braslow law firm in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, on behalf of the family of 32-year-old man who unexpectedly committed suicide soon after being prescribed Lexapro.

A steady stream of lawsuits have been filed against GlaxoSmithKline over Paxil, stemming from the company's concealment of the drug's link to suicide, birth defects, violence and withdrawal syndrome.

On March 23, 2006, the California-based Baum Hedlund law firm filed a national class-action lawsuit against Glaxo on behalf of the mother of an 11-year old Kansas boy who committed suicide, and a teenager in Texas who attempted suicide while taking Paxil.

She says, Baum Hedlund has documents obtained in litigation that show there was an awareness of the suicide risk as far back as the late 1970's, a decade before the first SSRI was approved for sale in the US.

A new round of Paxil lawsuits began on October 16, 2006, when Baum Hedlund filed a case alleging that Paxil use during pregnancy resulted in an infant being born with a life-threatening lung disorder, PPHN. Between 10% and 20% of infants born with PPHN end up dying, even when they receive treatment.

On July 28, 2006, Baum Hedlund also filed a lawsuit on behalf of the parents of an infant who was born with congenital heart birth defects as a result of his mother taking Paxil during pregnancy. Since birth, the child has undergone 3 open-heart surgeries and will likely have to undergo more and possibly a heart transplant at some point in the future.

Based on the company's legendary history of concealing adverse effects, the lead attorney on the case, Karen Barth Menzies, says believes Glaxo has known about these risks and should have warned prescribing doctors and consumers about these birth defects long ago.

The Houston law firm of Robert Kwok & Associates is handling a Celexa birth heart defects case in Kentucky. The mother was prescribed Celexa during pregnancy, and her baby was born with Shone's Complex, a form of congenital heart disease that consists of defects that lead to the obstruction of blood flow from the heart to the body.

Legal analysts are predicting that SSRI makers will offer early settlements in cases involving birth defects to avoid having these families appear before a jury.

Pfizer is still being sued left and right over adverse effects related to the epilepsy drug Neurontin. In 2004, the company pleaded guilty to charges involving a massive off-label marketing scheme and agreed to pay the second-largest settlement ever in a health care fraud prosecution of $403 million. By 2002, a full 94% of Neurontin sales were for off-label use, according to the August 16, 2004 USA Today.

Many private lawsuits involve Neurontin-induced suicidality. The Pogust & Braslow law firm is handling a case for Natalie Biedenbender, whose husband committed suicide at age 39, after being prescribed the drug off-label for back pain.

"Although Neurontin is prescribed for scores of off-label indications," Attorney Derek Braslow reports, "since 1999, the off-label use continues to be most common in the areas where the company focused its illegal marketing efforts, such as bipolar disorder, peripheral neuropathy, and migraine."

Two lawsuits were recently filed against Novartis and Astellas Pharma, the makers of the topical skin creams, Elidel and Protopic, used to treat eczema. Alan and Dayna Thomson filed a lawsuit in December 2006 after their daughter Haley died after using Elidel, and Ashley McDonald filed a lawsuit in January 2007 after being diagnosed with lymphoma following her use of Elidel.

In another case, Traci Reilly, of Naperville, Illinois, developed breast cancer after applying Protopic and Elidel for a condition that caused patches of discolored skin on her breast.

Protopic and Elidel belong to a class of drugs known as calcineurin inhibitors, so called because they reduce immune activity by inhibiting the activity of the enzyme calcineurin in organ transplant patients. Use of these drugs has long been known to increase the risk of cancer, and the drugs were labeled accordingly for use in transplant patients.

Protopic and Elidel have only been on the market for about 5 years and together have already been prescribed to more than 7 million people. In 2006, the FDA added a black box warning to the skin creams about the cancer risk.

On February 21, 2007, Tom Moore, the author of several books on the pharmaceutical industry, told CBS News that he had studied about 1,200 cases of suspected injuries pertaining to Protopic and Elidel reported to the FDA through 2005 and found more than 100 potential cancer cases in children and adults, with most involving lymphoma or skin cancer.

Moving From AntiDepressents to AntiPsychotics

As noted here:

A Brief History of Diagnostic Trends:

When benzos were the big drugs, everyone had anxiety.

When the SSRI era was born, depression was the disease of the day.

When depression was saturated, the move was on to raise awareness about social anxiety, generalized anxiety, PTSD, etc, as the SSRIs still had patent life to spare, and hence markets to conquer.

The new frontiers are depression with pain, for which Cymbalta is allegedly the drug of choice (despite rather meager supportive evidence), and bipolar, for which Seroquel, Abilify, Zyprexa, and Risperdal/Invega have already made significant inroads.

Lilly cleverly tried to expand the bipolar market with the Viva Zyprexa and Zyprexa Limitless campaigns, but it was just the first step in a much larger campaign.

Of course, who are we to be surprised that mental diseases rise and fall with the fashion of new drugs on the market?

We have this comment from someone in the business, entitled FareWell Depression

Write this day down: 4/4/07, it is the first day of the new psychiatry. Everything changes, starting today.

Today, in the New England Journal Of Medicine, is an article ostensibly about the lack of additional benefit from adding an antidepressant to a mood stabilizer. This is both surprising and not surprising: surprising, because, well, you'd think two drugs would be better than one. Not surprising because, well, if the first drug worked, why would a second even be necessary? (See #8). And if the first didn't work, how do you know the improvement didn't come entirely from the second drug?

If this is all the article said, it would not be worthy of mention, let alone the herald of a new dynasty.

The study also found that the studied antidepressants did not induce mania. That this should have been prima facie obvious even to a 9 year old without the benefit of eyes (what's an antidepressant? They're not all chemically similar, so why should they all be blamed for the same side effects?) isn't the point here. [...]

Psychiatry is not about science, it is about language, politics. What's happened here is that "mood stabilizer" now includes atypical antipsychotics; and-- compare what the study was designed to show and what they spun it to show-- we've gone from "polypharmacy is not better" to "monotherapy with mood stabilizers [read: antipsychotics] is just as good as two drugs at once."

There's a subtlety there, and that subtlety is magnificent.[...]

What the article is saying is that academic psychiatrists are no longer behind antidepressants and antiepileptics. SSRI and SNRI use will decline from here, as will Depakote. They're behind antispychotics. And antipsychotic use is positioned to explode.

But without academics pushing SSRIs, their use will wane--and, importantly, so will their support of the diagnosis "Major Depression." This is going to sound controversial, inane, but it will happen.

Look for upcoming articles finding that "Depression" is overdiagnosed, that it is really just-- life. Look for articles that now find SSRIs aren't that effective after all, that the old "10% better than placebo" is a statistical trick with little clinical utility. That they are way overused in kids.

You might say, wait, isn't the decline of polypharmacy a good thing; that SSRIs are overused in kids; that they aren't that great; and that depression is overdiagnosed? All of this is true, but this isn't psychiatry finally coming to its senses; this is psychiatry entering the manic phase. Sure, it's less SSRIs for kids; but it's more antipsychotics.

Because simultaneously there will be articles pushing the idea that recurrent unipolar depression is really bipolar depression; that there are common genetic or heritability patterns; that the epidemiology and course is similar, etc.

The move will be to squeeze out MDD into "life" and bipolar. This done, antipsychotics become first line agents. Oh, and look for antipsychotics to get FDA approvals for kids. [...] There's no science here, only a tinkering with language and loyalties, with staggering results.[...]

This isn't psychiatry suddenly waking from a coma, aha! it turns out the existing data do show antipsychotics are mood stabilizers! Instead of using them to replace antiepileptics, they will use them to replace everything: SSRIs, benzos, antiepileptics, stimulants, etc.

And polypharmacy will only be reincarnated-- in the form of multiple simultaneous antipsychotics (Abiliquel, anyone?), with preposterous pharmacologic justifications ("this one acts on serotonin, so it's the antidepressant, and this one on dopamine, so it's the antimanic.") If anyone says that to you, stab them.

You don't get many changes like this, maybe once every ten years-- the last was the beginning of the Depakote era, and before that was the advent of SSRIs, each with it's own erroneous semantics ("kindling model;" "serotonin model of depression.")

I wish all the patients in the world good luck, you'll need it. Not because of the antipsychotics themselves, which will work or not, oblivious to doctor and diagnosis; but because of the doctors, who take little interest in examining the evidence behind their practice, and even less interest in reevaluating its core principles; and who lack the courage to even treat what they see, instead resorting to artificial, and wrong, paradigms and algorithms.

There's not even pseudoscience here. Psychiatry is being lead by the siren call of semiotics, and it is saying, follow me, I am made of words...

And right on time is this story in the NY Times

Peadophile Psychiatrist released on tripled bail of $750,000 - Faces 18 counts

From the San Francisco Chronicle

A prominent retired psychiatrist charged with molesting five former patients was released from jail Friday after posting bail that a San Mateo County judge had tripled earlier in the day.

More than three dozen men have accused Dr. William Ayres of molesting them as boys dating to 1969, and additional charges are likely, prosecutor Melissa McKowan said.

The 75-year-old Ayres, former head of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, had been released from jail after his wife posted $250,000 bail Monday. On Friday, he returned to jail after a judge increased the bail to $750,000.

Ayers, arrested last week at his San Mateo home, removed his wristwatch, tie, suit jacket and wedding ring in a Redwood City courtroom and handed them to his wife before two bailiffs escorted him out. Ayres, who walks slowly and has a list of medical ailments, was allowed to keep his cane.

Still clutching her husband's belongings as she left the courtroom, Solveig Ayres walked quickly past a group of reporters.

"I can't say anything to you," she said. "I'm sorry."

Judge Carl Holm increased Ayres' bail Friday to $750,000 after prosecutors brought four new child molestation charges Thursday involving two more alleged victims. Ayres is now charged with molesting five boys from 1988 to 1996 when they were from 8 to 12 years old.

McKowan had sought to increase Ayres' bail to $1.8 million -- $100,000 for each of the 18 counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 that he faces.

A sheriff's official at the County Jail said late Friday that Ayers had posted the increased bail and had been released.

Philip Barnett, a defense attorney who appeared with Ayres on Friday but will not take on the case because he has represented one of the alleged victims, said Ayres was not a flight risk or a danger to the public.

"If he was going to flee, he would've fled," Barnett said. "The fact is, he's in poor health."

Holm called the charges "very serious" but noted that Ayres is elderly, has no criminal record, is now barred from seeing patients and has no grandchildren or other apparent means to come in contact with young boys.

"I don't see that as likely anymore," Holm said of the possibility that Ayres poses a risk to the public. .

Outside court, McKowan called the bail increase "appropriate."

Prosecutors contend that Ayres, who received scores of patient referrals from the county's juvenile justice system, used his position to victimize vulnerable and troubled boys, knowing they would be hesitant to come forward and probably wouldn't be believed if they did.

At least 37 men have accused Ayres of molesting them as boys, but the bulk of those allegations fall outside the state's statute of limitations, McKowan said.

California law requires that molestation charges be brought before the accuser turns 29 or that the alleged crime occurred after Jan. 1, 1988.

A Brief Introduction (Seroxat : The Mental Health Thalidomide)

As seen on this Blog

This blog has been set up by a concerned group of individuals who have been horrifically affected by the anti-depressant medication SSRI-Seroxat. SSRI’s are a “class” of drugs used primarily to treat depression and other so called “psychiatric disorders”. Seroxat has been the most controversial drug in this class of drugs and possibly of the past decade. While of course the terrible side effects and withdrawals from seroxat have been well documented in all mediums for some years now, the manufacturors of Seroxat, GSK, have not been . While researching Seroxat through forums on the internet, it was discovered that Seroxat is not the first drug or product made by GSK to have caused harm. This site aims to provide readers with portals to documents , links and research which might help them piece together the puzzles of the Seroxat scandal so that they themselves can come to their own conclusions .

Here are a number of links to their excellent stories exposing this drug.

Seroxat Link 1 : The Hypnotic Narcotic
Seroxat Link 2 : NeuroSearch/Buus Lassen : The Birth Of Seroxat
Seroxat Link 3 : The Yugoslavia Trials
Seroxat Link 4 : Seroxat Holocaust : The First Wave : 1991
Seroxat Link 5 : 1998 , Seroxat Holocaust , The Second Wave
Seroxat Link 6 : Scamming Seroxat : the Players

The Seroxat Links ( seroxat story )

Washington psychologist sentenced for Tricare fraud

From the Navy Times

A Seattle psychologist has agreed to pay $510,000 to the federal government and was sentenced Friday, April 6, to 12 months and one day in prison for defrauding a Defense Department health insurance program.

Dr. David Celio, 63, pleaded guilty in November to one count of health care fraud for repeatedly filing bogus claims for reimbursement with Tricare, which covers retired military personnel, reservists and spouses and children of active-duty troops.

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman also sentenced Celio to two years of supervised release after he serves his sentence.

Celio saw patients in Everett, Mukilteo and in Oak Harbor, near the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, according to the government.

His fraudulent practices included billing for individual and family therapy sessions that did not occur; billing for in-person counseling sessions when Celio talked to a patient by phone; and billing multiple family members for individual counseling sessions after a family therapy session, according to court papers.

The Washington state Department of Health opened an investigation of Celio after receiving a copy of the plea agreement in December. That investigation is continuing, according to a department spokesman.

Psychiatrist facing 4 new molest counts - Prosecutors add 2 more alleged victims bringing total to 5 in sex abuse case

Via the San Francisco Chronicle

San Mateo County prosecutors brought four new child molestation charges Thursday against a former head of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry who allegedly molested boys in his office under the guise of giving them medical exams.

Dr. William Ayres, 75, is now charged with sexually abusing five former patients from 1988 to 1996, after prosecutors added two alleged victims to the criminal complaint against him Thursday.

Ayres, who received scores of patient referrals from the county's juvenile justice system, used his position to victimize vulnerable and troubled boys, knowing they would be hesitant to come forward and probably wouldn't be believed if they did, prosecutor Melissa McKowan said.

"The people least likely to report (sexual abuse) ... are teenage boys who have been sent to a psychiatrist," McKowan said. She called the now-retired psychiatrist typical of "very smart" pedophiles who maneuver themselves into positions of trust to prey on children.

At least 30 men have accused Ayres of molesting them as boys dating to 1969, according to prosecutors and police reports. Charges could not be brought in some of the cases because they fall outside the statute of limitations, prosecutors said.

California law requires that molestation charges be brought before the accuser turns 29 or that the alleged crime occurred after Jan. 1, 1988.

McKowan said possible victims have been calling authorities daily since Ayres was arrested last week at his San Mateo home. Among them were the two whose accusations were the basis for the new charges filed Thursday.

One said Ayres molested him twice from 1988 to 1989, starting when the alleged victim was 8 years old, according to court documents. The other accused Ayres of molesting him twice from 1989 to 1990, starting when he was 11 years old, the charges show.

Ayres is now accused of 18 counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14. The three accusers cited in the original criminal complaint last week said they were 9, 11 and 12 years old, respectively, when the psychiatrist allegedly masturbated them during office visits.

Ayres, who has not yet hired an attorney, did not enter a plea during a brief appearance in a Redwood City courtroom Thursday when the new charges were filed.

Philip Barnett, an attorney who appeared for Ayres during the hearing, declined to comment as he left the courtroom.

Ayres is scheduled to appear again in court today as prosecutors seek to increase his bail to $1.8 million. He is now free; his wife posted $250,000 in cash bail on Monday.

April 2007 Big Pharma Litigation Update - Drugs (Part I)

From the Lawyers and Settlements website

For the last two decades, illegal drug marketing schemes have paid off well for Big Pharma. However, as the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and every major drug company is currently involved in massive litigation.

Some companies are facing thousands of lawsuits with a common complaint that the drug maker deliberately concealed the side effects of their products while illegally promoting the drugs for off-label use.

Off-label refers to prescribing drugs to treat conditions other than those approved by the FDA and listed on the label. It can include prescribing drugs to unapproved populations, such as children or the elderly, or in higher doses than specified on the label.

It is illegal for drug companies to promote a drug for off-label uses, but doctors are allowed to prescribe a drug for any use they choose. Almost without exception, the lawsuits currently pending accuse the pharmaceutical companies of influencing doctors to prescribe the product for unapproved uses.

On August 18, 2006, Bloomberg News reported that Wyeth has accumulated more than 175,000 lawsuits since the Fen-Phen diet combination was removed from the market after studies revealed that the drugs caused heart valve damage, and primary pulmonary hypertension, or PPH, a life-threatening lung disorder. All total, Wyeth has set aside more than $21 billion to cover legal costs and settlements since the drugs were withdrawn, according to Reuters on May 24, 2006.

There was a national class-action settlement involving claims for heart valve damage, but it did not include claims for PPH which are proving to be costly. In one 2004 case alone, a Texas jury awarded over $1 billion to the family of a woman who died of PPH after taking Fen-Phen for about two years, including $113.4 million in compensatory damages and $900 million in punitive damages, according to Wyeth's 2005 Annual Report. The case was later settled for an undisclosed amount.

PPH is a life-threatening condition that can require a heart-lung transplant. According to the FDA, PPH "results in death in about 40% of affected individuals within 4 years."

The Fen-Phen combination was never FDA approved for any use, which means every prescription was off-label. Patients were able to get Fen-Phen on the internet, and Jenny Craig and Nutri-System set up weight-loss programs where doctors would prescribe the drugs to customers.

And there appears to be no end in sight for Fen-Phen lawsuits. On December 5, 2006, five more women who took the drugs in 1996 and 1997, filed lawsuits against Wyeth after being diagnosed with PPH. When it comes to liability, a plaintiff's attorney, Paul Rheingold, in "Fen-Phen and Redux: A Tale of Two Drugs," says, "there is blame enough to go around."

The doctors who set up store-front Fen-Phen clinics and prescribed the drugs are obvious culprits, he says, and so are drug companies that profited financially from the fad and may have neglected to pass on information about deadly side effects.

On August 18, 2006, Bloomberg reported that Wyeth was facing 5,000 lawsuits over the menopause drug, Prempro, alleging that Wyeth misled the plaintiffs through deceptive marketing about the cancer risks associated with estrogen and progestin. As many as 6 million women took Prempro before it was linked to cancer in a 2002 study.

Financial analysts are predicting that, Merck in the end, will pay out as much as $50 billion for Vioxx litigation. On March 12, 2007, Reuters reported that a New Jersey jury found the drug was responsible for a plaintiff's heart attack and awarded $20 million in damages.

According to Reuters, the jury also found that Merck committed consumer fraud by making misrepresentations concerning the heart risks, and intentionally concealing safety information from doctors prior to the plaintiff's heart attack.

A large number of lawsuits have also been filed against Merck, over the osteoporosis drug Fosamax, and against Johnson and Johnson, over the Ortho-Evra birth control patch. The plaintiff's allege that Fosamax causes jaw-bone death (OJN) and that the patch causes blood clots, which in turn lead to strokes.

Legal experts predict causation in cases involving Fosamax and the Ortho patch will be easy to prove because the plaintiffs have what is referred to as a "signature disease," meaning a condition easily tied to the drug because it is rare.

The jaw-bone death occurring in people taking Fosamax is extremely uncommon. Kenneth Hargreaves of the University of Texas, noted the increasing cases in the April 3, 2006 LA Times. "We've uncovered about 1,000 patients in the past six to nine months alone," he said, "so the magnitude of the problem is just starting to be recognized."

FDA approved in 1995, Fosamax is a relatively new drug, and unreported cases may be higher than expected because doctors may attribute the pain caused by OJN to osteoporosis, according to Diane Wysowski of the FDA's Office of Drug Safety.

Dr Salvatore Ruggiero, an oral surgeon and one of the first doctors to notice the rise in ONJ in 2001, told the Times, "Even though the chances of getting this are small, considering there are 23 million women taking this drug, we could be talking about a significant number of people."

The same goes for the Ortho patch. Blood clots seldom develop in young women of childbearing age. And legal experts say, for that reason, many Ortho patch lawsuits have already ended in confidential settlements with hardly a peep in the mainstream press, and J&J has made it clear to other plaintiffs' attorneys that the company is willing to cut a deal.

Experts predict that many more lawsuits will be filed because there are thousands of young patch victims who are still unaware that the patch caused the health problems. In 2005 alone, more than 9.4 million prescriptions were written for the Ortho patch, according to IMS Health, an industry-tracking firm.

The FDA says it has received about 9,000 reports of adverse events related to the patch, but the agency also acknowledges that only between 1% and 10% of adverse events are ever get reported.

There are over a hundred more lawsuits filed against J&J involving the Duragesic pain patch. The device is supposed to deliver controlled doses of fentanyl, a drug so powerful that high doses can turn off the respiratory center in the brain.

On July 8, 2006, the Associated Press reported that a Houston jury had awarded $772,500 to the daughter of a woman who died after a leak on the patch increased the dose of the painkiller, and the jury found J&J negligent in the way the patch was made.

Another fentanyl product that legal experts say will bring a wave of lawsuits in the next couple of years, is Cephalon's painkilling lollipop, Actiq. The product was only approved to treat cancer patients in chronic pain who are already on an opioid drug, because life-threatening conditions can occur at any dose in patients without a built-up tolerance for opioids. But a recent study by Prime Therapeutics found Actiq is being prescribed off-label nearly 90% of the time.

Fentanyl is reportedly 80 times stronger than morphine, and is a Schedule II narcotic drug, in the same category as cocaine, opium, methamphetamine and methadone, a class known to have the highest potential for abuse and overdose.

In 2004, there were an estimated 8,000 emergency-room visits for fentanyl overdoses, according the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Overdose can result in sudden death through respiratory arrest, cardiac arrest, severe respiratory depression, cardiovascular collapse or severe anaphylactic reaction, according to the agency. As of November 16, 2006, there were 653 deaths confirmed in the US since 2005.

In November 2006, the Wall Street Journal, said evidence obtained in litigation showed Cephalon had set high sales quotas for its sales representatives that could not be reached without promoting Actiq off-label.

Internal company documents show sales reps were regularly sent to doctors who treated no cancer patients, with free coupons for doctors to pass out to patients. According to the Journal, Dr Stephen Leighton, a general practitioner with only 3 cancer patients at any given time, said a Cephalon saleswoman stop by once a month and gave him about 60 to 70 coupons to pass out to patients for 6 Actiq lollipops.

He told the Journal that the coupons led him to try the drug for migraines and back pain and said he prescribes Actiq 15 to 20 times a month to patients who do not have cancer.

According to the November 3, 2006, report in the Journal, Actiq sales increased from $15 million in 2000, to more than $400 million today.

The consequences of the off-label prescribing of this product are far reaching. On January 22, 2006, the Free Press reported that the wife of a minister, a former schoolteacher and mother of three, was charged with involuntary manslaughter because she gave Actiq to a friend for a migraine, and the friend died of a drug overdose.

More lawsuits are sure to be filed against Eli Lilly since secret internal documents obtained in litigation by attorney, Jim Gottstein, from Dr David Egilman, an expert in previous Zyprexa litigation, prove that the company concealed Zyprexa's link to severe weight gain, high blood sugar, and diabetes for a decade, while Lilly promoted the drug for so many off-label uses that more than 20 million people have taken Zyprexa.

To date, Eli Lilly has spent well over $1 billion to settle about 26,000 Zyprexa lawsuits, with still more litigants waiting in line. Zyprexa has been linked to serious side effects, including diabetes, hyperglycemia and pancreatitis.

On January 14, 2005, a class-action lawsuit was filed in Canada with claims that Lilly also withheld information on the safety of Prozac. The plaintiffs allege that the reason Lilly failed to disclose the documents was because they showed a drastic increase in suicide attempts and other violent acts in patients taking Prozac, when compared to patients taking 4 other drugs.

All through the 1990s, Lilly swore that Prozac did not increase the risk of suicide or violence, while the company was quietly settling lawsuits out of court which made it possible to keep the incriminating evidence hidden with court orders, just as it has been doing with Zyprexa until the secret documents showed up in the press in December 2006.

Similar lawsuits are being filed against AstraZeneca over its antipsychotic drug, Seroquel, which reportedly has been used by more than 16 million people since it came on the market in 1997. The plaintiffs in those cases also claim that Astra downplayed the diabetes risks and concealed safety information.

Another ex-mental health worker named in tax-fraud scheme

Via the Denver Post

A former health care technician at the state mental hospital is among those indicted in a federal tax-fraud scheme that includes patients at the hospital.

Jenice Melonas, 26, of Colorado Springs, who resigned from her job at the institute in February, is charged in a racketeering enterprise that netted about $25,000 a month.

If convicted, she could face up to 24 years in prison.

Melonas is the second former staffer at the Colorado Mental Health Institute implicated in the March 16 indictment by a Pueblo grand jury.

The indictment alleges that the tax-fraud scheme used the Social Security numbers of patients at the institute to file false federal tax forms.

Those allegedly involved in the fraud falsely claimed some patients at the institute were dependents of other patients and then made claims for payment of the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Richard Gerald Madrid, who retired in December from his job as recreational therapist, is identified in court documents as a member of the criminal enterprise, but he was not indicted.

"I can't tell you anything," Madrid said Wednesday.

Melonas, who was released from the Pueblo County Jail on a $50,000 bond on March 19, could not be reached.

The grand jury also indicted Raul Caraveo, a patient at the institute, who is accused of demanding that half of the tax proceeds go to him, according to the indictment. He is being held at the Pueblo County Jail on $50,000 bail.

The third person indicted was Kenneth Fritz, 45, who in the summer of 2004 escaped from the institute after he was permitted to attend a family reunion in Cleveland. After his escape, his status was changed to "unconditional release" at the urging of his treatment supervisors.

The indictment names six other patients at the institute as participating in the racketeering, but they were not indicted.

Officials to look into mental-health fraud

From the Winston Salem Journal of North Carolina

The state said yesterday that it will try to recoup payments from providers and examine possible fraud after a preliminary audit found misuse of a new service for mental-health and substance-abuse treatment paid for with Medicaid dollars.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced last month that it would audit private companies and nonprofit agencies that provide what's called "community support." The providers determine patients' needs and then give some basic aid such as helping clients work on social skills.

A review of the program led regulators to start visiting the 167 providers billing the highest amount of community-support services per person they served, the department said yesterday.

While the audits continue, "we now know that some providers aren't using the services as they were intended, or they aren't properly documenting their use," department secretary Carmen Hooker Odom said. "We need to act now to make sure that children and adults with mental illness and substance-abuse disorders get the services they need."

The department plans a three-tiered response to these providers that will include paying back claims that weren't documented fully or have 5 percent of Medicaid payments withheld until they demonstrate compliance.

Providers with a compliance score below 50 percent will have 25 percent of payments withheld and their actions referred to authorities for investigations into fraud and abuse.

The department is already working to recalculate the proper payment rate for the service, which federal Medicaid officials agreed to pay for last year.

Guilty Plea From Worker in State Mental Health Money Scam

From 1010 WINS Radio in New York

A well-paid veteran state employee pleaded guilty to grand larceny on Tuesday after scamming the state out of $1.2 million over more than eight years, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said.

Cuomo said James Leggiero faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced July 2 after pleading guilty to a felony count of first-degree grand larceny. He also must reimburse the state for the $1.2 million, Cuomo said.

The arrest and plea Tuesday marked the first high-profile state ethics case brought by Cuomo's public integrity unit. Democrat Cuomo, elected in November to replace Eliot Spitzer, had vowed to make public integrity a major part of the work of the attorney general's office.

"If there is corruption, we will be diligent in policing it,'' Cuomo told The Associated Press on Tuesday as Leggiero was pleading guilty.

Leggiero, 50, was a $79,000-a-year principal auditor for the state Office of Mental Health. He had worked for the state since 1980.

Cuomo's investigators said Leggiero had created a company, Very Important Property Inc., that would bill the state office for phony site feasibility studies for its residential treatment program. Leggiero would then approve the vouchers.

The scam allowed Leggiero to support a lavish lifestyle that included three homes and fancy automobiles, including a vintage 1958 Corvette.

Cuomo said Leggiero might have assets the state could claim immediately that could be worth "several hundred thousand dollars.'' The attorney general also said the length of Leggiero's prison sentence may depend, in part, on how much restitution he can make now and what sort of plan he develops for paying off the rest of the debt.

Cuomo said that as part of the investigation he was also announcing the creation Tuesday of a toll-free hot line that can be used to report possible government corruption.

The new attorney general told the AP the Leggiero case was a clear sign that state agencies had to do a better job policing their own operations and have better checks and balances on state spending.

"This whole area of state operations, this is where the money is ... $50 billion a year. Follow the money,'' said Cuomo.

In fact, Leggiero was only caught after the state comptroller's office implemented a new system in November for reviewing the more than 20 million payments made each year by the state to various vendors.

"The payments turned up right away,'' said Dan Weiller, a spokesman for Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

The case was referred to Cuomo by the comptroller's office in February.

"There was a problem with the internal controls at OMH,'' Cuomo told a news conference Tuesday afternoon when pressed about how the fraud could go undetected as long as it did.

"The good news is, it was found out,'' DiNapoli said.

"The Office of Mental Health is aggressively reviewing its internal control processes, and is implementing changes that have been identified to strengthen its financial systems,'' said OMH spokeswoman Jill Daniels when asked about Cuomo's criticism.

Leggiero was suspended without pay by OMH after Cuomo began his investigation.

AG's Public Integrity Hotline: 800-428-9072

More Charges possible in Ayes Molestation Case.

As seen via the San Mateo County Times. More charges are waiting in the wings as more people have come forward. The accused psychiatrist has made bail after it was reduced to a mere $250,000, to the disappointment of police.

Dr. William Ayres, the prominent San Mateo psychiatrist arrested Thursday and charged with 14 counts of lewd and lascivious acts with three children younger than 14, posted bail early Monday afternoon, county officials and police reported.

Ayres, 75, was released from the Maguire Correctional Facility about 2 p.m. on $250,000 bail.

The bail was posted by Ayres' wife, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

On Friday, within 24 hours of Ayres' arrest, a San Mateo County Superior Court judge slashed Ayres' initial bail of $1.5 million to $250,000 — an 80 percent reduction which Wagstaffe called "very disappointing."

Prosecutor Melissa McKowan had advised the judge against reducing Ayres' bail on the basis that the child psychiatrist was a potential flight risk, adding that he recently had sold his home.

Ayres, a former president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, practiced in San Mateo County for decades, seeing thousands of patients referred to him through local school districts and the county's juvenile court system. He also maintained a private practice.

Police first began investigating Ayres in 2002 after being told by a man who had been a patient of Ayres in the 1970s that the doctor had molested him on multiple occasions. But the case had to be dropped after a Supreme Court ruling effectively changed the statute of limitations on such cases.

Childhood molestation charges can only be brought by victims who are younger than 29 or whose alleged abuse occurred after Jan. 1, 1988.

The San Mateo Police Department reopened the case in March 2006. A search warrant was executed for Ayres' records, and a list was compiled of more than 800 patients.

To date, the investigation has unearthed 21 people allegedly molested by Ayres. Three witnesses — men in their late 20s and early 30s who were aged 9, 11 and 12 at the time of their alleged molestation — fall within the legal stature of limitations.

The national media attention brought by Ayres' arrest has prompted more people to come forward with information, and police continue conducting interviews, Wagstaffe said.

Although prosecutors have not revealed much about the case in development against Ayres, Wagstaffe revealed Monday that one man allegedly molested by Ayres told police that the child psychiatrist threatened him for expressing discomfort during a session.

"It was then that the doctor threw out the comment to him, 'Nobody will believe you, anyway. You're a troubled youth — hey, nobody's going to believe you over me,'" said Wagstaffe.

Ayres is expected to enter a plea at his arraignment Wednesday — during which the district attorney will charge Ayres with additional counts, said McKowan. The district attorney also will use the arraignment as an opportunity to request an increase in the psychiatrist's bail.

The case against Ayres is "incredibly grave," said McKowan.

"There are numerous people who were victimized by somebody in an extreme situation of trust," she said Friday, following Ayres' initial court appearance. "This is as egregious a child-molest case as you can find."

The therapist who branded his patient a waste of space

From the Daily Mail

A psychologist who specializes in stress counseling has been rebuked by his ruling body after telling a patient to 'pull yourself together' and branding another 'a waste of space'.

Dr John McCarron was found to have insulted his patients and behaved in a way that would be detrimental to their health.

The 44-year-old doctor works for the Lancashire Care NHS Trust in adult occupational therapy. But he has also been in private practice since 1997.

[...]

One 52-year-old man, a mechanic who had suffered from anxiety for nine years and was unable to work because of severe depression, had been referred to him by his GP.

He told the committee that Dr McCarron had called him, among other things, a 'w***er', a 'waste of space' and 'an idiot' during sessions, adding that he had felt bullied.

Another patient complained that the psychologist was judgmental and had said words to the effect of: "Pull yourself together, you're pathetic."

[...]

When contacted, Dr McCarron refused to comment and referred the matter to Lancashire Care NHS Trust.

A trust spokesperson said: "The trust is very clear that any behaviour towards people using our services which is found to be abusive or insulting is not acceptable."

'Stain doesn't wash off,' psychiatrist's accuser says

A follow up on the story of Psychiatrist William H. Ayres from the San Francisco Chronicle

A prominent San Mateo psychiatrist, he is accused of 14 felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14. He allegedly molested three boys repeatedly between 1991 and 1996 while they were his patients.

---

Dr. William H. Ayres impressed colleagues as an articulate, accomplished child psychiatrist with a civic bent, and San Mateo County officials once lauded him for "his tireless effort to improve the lives of children."

But for some of the 2,000 patients he saw in his private office over the past four decades, Ayres allegedly scarred their lives instead.

"It's like a stain that doesn't wash off," said Greg Hogue, 37, of Santa Rosa, one of 21 men who prosecutors say have accused Ayres of molesting them as boys as far back as 1969. "He is trained to know exactly what kind of damage he is causing and is doing it anyway. That's what blows me away."

Ayres, 75, a former president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, appeared Friday in a Redwood City courtroom after his arrest at his San Mateo home Thursday night. He did not enter a plea to 14 molestation counts alleging that he masturbated three boys in his office from 1991 through 1996, when they were 9, 11 and 12 years old.

The alleged victims, all now in their 20s, are not named in court documents. Ayres, who is married and once served on a children and family commission with San Mateo County District Attorney Jim Fox and Supervisor Richard Gordon, faces up to 112 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said.

During the four-year criminal investigation, 21 men accused Ayres of molesting them as children, prosecutor Melissa McKowan said, but childhood sexual assault charges could be brought in only three cases because the statute of limitations for such crimes is 10 years or until the victim turns 28.

Several alleged victims and a social worker wondered how Ayres could continue receiving dozens of referrals from the juvenile justice system for nearly two decades after the first complaint was lodged.

"He continued to be sent families and kids who put their trust in him when the county knew that there was this report put in by me and possibly others," said Jeff Lugerner, who was a licensed clinical social worker when he brought a complaint to authorities in 1987 after Hogue told him Ayres had fondled him at age 15. "That's what's shocking to me. How do you continue to send people to somebody like that when you have had a claim filed against them?"

San Mateo police investigated the 1987 complaint and determined it was unfounded, the social services report read. County Counsel Thomas Casey said he couldn't comment on how the county handled earlier complaints against Ayres.

For decades, the psychiatrist with the ruddy face and reddish beard -- now turned gray -- was a fixture in San Mateo County mental health circles. The county's juvenile justice system, its court-appointed attorney program, pediatricians and social workers all referred patients to him for years.

He evaluated a patient referred by Juvenile Court Judge Marta Diaz as recently as March 2003, even though San Mateo police or the county Social Services Department had received at least three complaints of molestation by that time, including Hogue's report with the department in June 1987, records show.

Police also investigated a Folsom state prison inmate's allegation that Ayres had molested him, according to the transcript of police Detective Randall Billingsley's 2004 deposition in a civil case brought by a former patient.

The inmate, who had been convicted of armed robbery, told a nurse during an evaluation at Atascadero State Hospital that Ayres had molested him during court-ordered sessions, Billingsley said. The detective said he was unclear on the outcome of that original investigation by his department. The inmate refused to talk to Billingsley when he followed up about 10 years later, the detective said.

A third incident was reported to San Mateo police in November 2002, records show. The alleged victim balked when police asked him to try to get Ayres to confess over a recorded phone call or to wear a recording device and confront the psychiatrist in person, the police report read.

That victim later filed the civil suit against Ayres after a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling struck down a state law that had retroactively extended the statute of limitations for child molestation and allowed prosecutions years after the alleged crimes occurred.

County and court payments to Ayres stopped shortly before that lawsuit was filed in December 2003, documents show. The lawsuit ended with a confidential settlement in July 2005, after which Ayres' attorney said the psychiatrist did not concede any wrongdoing.

Margaret Kemp, who worked as a San Mateo County judge from 1978 until 2004, said Ayres had a "glowing" reputation, and she referred as many as 200 cases involving juvenile sex offenders to him.

"He always did good work for the court," Kemp said. "I never had reason to question him. ... When we had kids who were charged with sex offenses, we would send them to him for evaluation."

In an interview Friday, Kemp mused that her words sounded similar to those voiced in her courtroom by supporters of accused child molesters.

"Every time we saw someone charged with child molest, family and friends would stand up in court -- even after the person had pleaded guilty -- and say there had to be a mistake, he wouldn't do such a thing,'' said Kemp. "I hear echoes of that in what I'm saying to you. Oftentimes, child molesters, particularly middle-class, educated people, are completed unsuspected by people who live with them or work with them."

Dr. David Schwartz, who worked for San Mateo County from 1965 until his retirement in 1987, said he initially thought highly of Ayres but later grew suspicious when a youth, who was living in a group home, adamantly refused additional treatment by Ayres.

"I had referred him to Dr. Ayres, but after a visit or two, he refused to go back and he wouldn't talk about it,'' said Schwartz. "His social worker and I were both concerned. That was my first clue."

His second clue came years later, when a San Mateo detective consulted Schwartz, asking whether it was common practice for a child psychiatrist to perform a genital examination with a latex glove.

"I said absolutely not," Schwartz said. "I told him that it was entirely inappropriate, unnecessary and potentially very destructive to a child. He did not name Dr. Ayres, but when I said Dr. Ayres to the detective, he nodded. I put two and two together.

"Child psychiatrists have a lot of power, they are almost priest-like,'' Schwartz said. "These kids were reluctant to see a psychiatrist in the first place. In the child community, going to a shrink is something to be ashamed of. It's a trust issue, and betrayal of trust is unconscionable."

One of Ayres' alleged victims, who is now dead, was detained in a juvenile facility for a few days in 1973, when he was 14, for drinking beer in a park. At the facility, Ayres had him strip naked and lie on an examination table while the doctor fondled his genitals, the victim later told his mother.

When news of the civil lawsuit settlement was released two years ago, her son told her about the alleged molestation, then went to San Mateo police, the mother said.

"They said the case was too old, but he insisted they make a report," the mother said Friday. "My son carried this with him all his life. He had thought he was the only one.

Famed and Revered Child Psychiatrist Arrested on Child Molestation Charges

As seen on ABC News and Fox News

A child psychiatrist who once headed the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry was arrested amid allegations he had molested male patients dating back to the 1960s.

Dr. William Ayres, 75, was taken into custody Thursday at his San Mateo home and charged with 14 felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14.

He is accused of fondling three boys repeatedly between 1991 and 1996 while they were his patients, according to the complaint. The statute of limitations for such crimes is 10 years or until the victim turns 28. The alleged victims are now 21, 25 and 26.

"We have many other victims who are outside the statute of limitations," prosecutor Melissa McKowan said Friday. She said their testimony would be used at trial to show a pattern of behavior. The earliest case she said she was aware of was from 1969.

Ayres, a prominent psychiatrist who retired last year, had been honored in 2002 by the San Mateo board of supervisors with a lifetime achievement award for "his tireless effort to improve the lives of children and adolescents." He also served as president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from 1993 to 1995.

His arrest followed a four-year investigation.

"The real tragedy here is that parents entrusted their children to this doctor for help, and they were victimized while in his care," San Mateo police Capt. Mike Callagy said. "That's so tragic."

Ayres was being held on $1.5 million bail and was scheduled to be arraigned Friday.

His attorney did not return a phone call seeking comment, and The Associated Press was not immediately able to reach Ayres' family.

Suspicions have dogged Ayres since 2003, when one former patient sued, accusing him of molesting him under the guise of a medical exam on several occasions in the late 1970s when the patient was 13.

In July 2005, the two sides reached a confidential settlement in which Ayres' attorney said the psychiatrist did not concede any wrongdoing.

Ayres said under oath that he didn't remember the alleged victim and denied molesting him. He acknowledged that he sometimes conducted physical exams of patients, according to a transcript of his deposition in the lawsuit.

"I do not think there is any standard of care that says it's inappropriate for a physician who is a child psychiatrist, that they should not do physical examinations," Ayres said, according to the transcript.

At least two other molestation reports against Ayres arose before the lawsuit, but one was determined to be "unfounded" in 1987, and the other alleged victim wouldn't cooperate with police, according to court records.

In 2005, at least two other men said Ayres molested them when they were teens in the 1960s and 1970s, but authorities couldn't proceed with the cases because the statute of limitations had expired, police reports show.

A spokeswoman for the Medical Board of California said Ayres' license to practice doesn't expire until January and he has no record of complaints to the board.

Additional Information from the San Francisco Chronicle

The arrest follows years of accusations against the doctor that raised red flags but never amounted to a criminal case. It was only after San Mateo police received a complaint in 2002 that authorities obtained a search warrant in March 2006 for Ayers' medical records, police said.

The records produced a list of 800 names of former patients whose contact with Ayres could fall within current statutes of limitations, police said. Police interviewed the patients and identified alleged victims that led to the current prosecution, Callagy said.

Among some of the other accusations that are documented in public records but never led to criminal charges are the following:

-- At least five men -- none of them the alleged victims in the criminal case -- claim in police reports, civil depositions and a Child Protective Services report that Ayres molested them in their youth.

-- One of those former patients sued Ayres in December 2003, accusing the psychiatrist of masturbating him under the guise of a medical exam on multiple occasions in the late 1970s when the patient was 13 years old. The case was settled confidentially in 2005.

-- Police investigated at least two other molestation reports against Ayres before the 2003 lawsuit, records and deposition transcripts show. One was determined to be "unfounded" in 1987, and the alleged victim in the other didn't cooperate with police, according to those records and statements.

-- At least two other men came forward separately in 2005 saying Ayres had also molested them as teens in the 1960s and 1970s, but the cases could not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired, police reports show.

One of those former patients, whose name was redacted from the report, told police he arrived early for an appointment one day and saw another teenage boy emerge from Ayres' office.

"The victim said the look on the other boy's face was like, 'He's going to do it to you too,' " the report read.

In the 2003 lawsuit, filed against Ayres and his medical group, Peninsula Psychiatric Associates, attorneys for the former patient accused the psychiatrist of exploiting his position of power and trust to prey upon young boys who were patients.

The lawsuit contended the alleged victim, referred to in court documents as James Doe, was not Ayres' first molestation victim. The lawsuit alleged "there were at least four others, and possibly more."

California Medical Board Investigating LA Psychiatrist Dr. Khristine Eroshevich

Reuters has this report (via the Scotsman)

The psychiatrist who prescribed all 11 of the drugs found in Anna Nicole Smith's hotel room after the tabloid star died is under investigation by the Medical Board of California, a spokeswoman for the state agency said on Thursday.

Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, who prescribed more than 1,800 pills and a bottle of the powerful sedative chloral hydrate for Smith in the five weeks before she died of a drug overdose, could lose her medical license if the board finds misconduct on her part.

Most of the drugs were prescribed to Smith's companion, Howard K. Stern, but medical examiners have said that they were intended for the 39-year-old Playboy Playmate turned billionaire's widow.

"I can only tell you that she (Eroshevich) is being investigated in connection with the Anna Nicole Smith matter," board spokeswoman Candis Cohen said.

Eroshevich, a Los Angeles-based psychiatrist, did not return a phone call from Reuters seeking comment.

Smith was found unresponsive in her Hollywood, Florida, hotel room on February 8 and pronounced dead within hours at a nearby hospital. Nine drugs were found in her system, including toxic levels of chloral hydrate.

The Broward County Medical Examiner's office on Thursday released a list of medications found in the room and prescribed by Eroshevich between Jan 2 and March 6. They include chloral hydrate, anti-anxiety drugs, muscle relaxants, anti-seizure drugs, diuretics and antibiotics.

Eight prescriptions, including the chloral hydrate, were prescribed to Stern. Two drugs, antibiotic Cipro and flu medicine Tamiflu, were prescribed by Eroshevich to someone named Alex Katz, who was not identified by the medical examiner's office.

One of the drugs found in the room, potassium chloride, was prescribed by Eroshevich to herself.

More than 600 pills were missing from the various bottles, though it wasn't clear if Smith took them all. The chloral hydrate was a liquid and about a third of the bottle's contents remained.

Cohen said the California medical board, which is responsible for licensing the state's physicians, assigns peace officers to investigate any accusation of misconduct by a doctor. The officers can file a formal charge of wrongdoing against the doctor with an administrative law judge, who would make a recommendation to the medical board.

Short of revoking a doctor's license, the board could also impose a lesser penalty, including suspension or probation.

"These investigations are not (typically) public record," Cohen said. "We are making an exception in this case because we want to assure the public that we are doing our job."

The medical board has previously said that it was investigating another physician in connection with Smith, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor.

We are 'rewarding' Khristine Eroshevich with her very own category tag, and will make sure all of the related stories get tagged appropriately.

Criteria for Depression Are Too Broad, Researchers Say

A followup report from the Washington Post

Up to 25 percent of people in whom psychiatrists would currently diagnose depression may only be reacting normally to stressful events such as a divorce or losing a job, according to a new analysis that reexamined how the standard diagnostic criteria are used.

The finding could have far-reaching consequences for the diagnosis of depression, the growing use of symptom checklists to identify those who may be depressed, and the $12 billion-a-year U.S. market for antidepressant drugs.

Diagnoses are currently made on the basis of a constellation of symptoms that include sadness, fatigue, insomnia and suicidal thoughts. The diagnostic manual used by doctors says that anyone who has at least five such symptoms for as little as two weeks may be clinically depressed. Only in the case of someone grieving over the death of a loved one is it normal for symptoms to last as long as two months, the manual says.

The new study, however, found that extended periods of depression-like symptoms are common in people who have been through other life stresses such as a divorce or a natural disaster and that they do not necessarily constitute illness.

The study also suggested that drug treatment may often be inappropriate for people who are experiencing painful -- but normal -- responses to life's stresses. Supportive therapy, on the other hand, may be useful -- and may keep someone who has been through a divorce or has lost a job from going on to develop full-blown depression.

The researchers -- including Michael B. First of Columbia University, the editor of the authoritative diagnostic manual -- based their findings on a national survey of 8,098 people. They found that those who had experienced a variety of stressful events frequently had prolonged periods in which they reported many symptoms of depression. Only a fraction, however, had severe symptoms that could be classified as clinical depression, the researchers said.

An estimated one in six Americans suffer depression at some point in their lives. Under the more limited criteria the researchers urged, that number would be 25 percent lower.

"The cost of not looking at context is you think anyone who comes under this diagnosis has a biological disorder, so should more or less automatically get antidepressant medication, and everything else is superfluous," said lead author Jerome Wakefield, a New York University researcher who studies the conceptual foundations of psychiatry. "There is a trend to treat people in this somewhat mechanized way."

Said First: "One issue this would play out at is at the level of medication. If someone has a normal grief reaction, you wouldn't give that person an antidepressant, you would favor counseling. If someone has major depression you would be more likely to medicate. So this could influence how clinicians think about medications or psychotherapy."

Drawing the line between normal and abnormal suffering has long been controversial in psychiatry, because people who have no disorders often experience the same symptoms as those who do, but their reactions typically are less prolonged and intense. Where to draw the line involves a degree of subjective judgment: If the criteria are too strict, some people who are depressed may not receive help.

After First oversaw the writing of the current edition of the manual, for example, a number of doctors contacted him about difficulties they had in applying the diagnosis, First said. One described a patient who was feeling acute grief after the death of her dog. The manual says doctors need not diagnose depression if symptoms follow the death of a loved one, and the doctor wanted to know whether the death of a pet met the criterion.

That question, First said, illustrated how difficult it was to establish a set of criteria that could encompass the complexity of human sorrow: The death of a spouse or a family member, he said, was only one of many things that could cause an acute grief reaction.

But he warned that people who are in pain after a divorce or other stressful event should not conclude that they simply ought to "buck up." They should seek the counsel of clinicians who would take the time to explore what caused the symptoms and whether they need treatment.

Still, Wakefield and Allan Horwitz, a researcher at Rutgers University who studies the sociology of mental disorders, said their study, which was published in this month's issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, pointed out that sadness has increasingly come to be seen as pathological in the United States. They have written a book called "The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow Into Depressive Disorder."

Pharmaceutical companies, the psychiatric profession and patient advocacy groups have all contributed to the phenomenon, Horwitz added. Companies stand to make more money from the one-size-fits-all approach, researchers find the cookie-cutter model of disease makes it easier to do studies, and psychiatry has come to think of itself as "the arbiter of normality," he said.

Patient groups, Horwitz added, think that the stigma attached to mental illnesses would be reduced if they were shown to be more common.

"The way in which people interpret their emotions is changing," Horwitz said. "People are starting to think that any sort of negative emotion is unnatural, that they can take medication and feel better. What that can also do is . . . make it less likely for people to make real changes in their lives that might be better than medications."

Reflections from the Blogosphere on the role of Psychiatrist Khristine Erosevich in the Death of Anna Nicole Smith

Here's an excerpt from really long post over at TMZ was archived over on Free Republic. Efforts to find the original post have come up dry, but might yet still prove fruitful.

UPDATE: Before we present the post I have the following details to pass on.

1. In checking 2 years of monthly hotsheets, I could find NO evidence that Khristine Eroshevich has ever been investigated, temporarily suspended or even mentioned.
   
   
2. This report states that her license to practice psychiatry was suspended by the American Board of Psychiatry. I looked on their site and she is listed as Board Certified without any restrictions.
   
   The American Board of Psychiatry and the American Psychiatric Association cannot impinge her license directly, nor can they restrict her practice. The former, the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, can do nothing, once a person is certified, they can either maintain their board certification by taking enough courses in a period of time, thus keeping their license current or not. They are not a licensing agency. That word has no applicability to them.
   
   The latter, the APA, is simply a membership organization. If a person belongs and commits a crime or ethics violation, they can lose their membership (unfortunately, no big impact), however in many circumstances, the APA findings are then referred on to the state Medical Board and at that point and only THEN the person can have their license investigated and it might be suspended or lost.
   
   
3. As far as I can tell, Ms. Eroshevich merely was fired from her job. LACERA is an agency and it fired her. That has no impact on her license unless the California Medical Board then hears of her firing and per the previous scenarios investigates and suspends or revokes her license.
   
   
4. There is reasonable speculation that the reason that Khristine Eroshevich was unable to get the medications and was requesting Dr. Sandpoor to prescribe for her was that she perhaps did not apply to the DEA to get narcotic prescribing privileges when she renewed her state license on her birthday, every other year.
   
   When a person renews their license, they indicate all categories of drugs they intend to prescribe. Schedule 2 drugs are a category for drugs of high abuse potential which requires a triplicate prescription pad - a special pad issued only by the DEA. Most medical doctors have one and keep it locked. They only pull it out if they have to prescribe those types of narcotic pain killers or stimulants that must be written on that pad.
   
   It is likely that Khristine Eroshevich knows that the DEA tracks ALL their prescriptions, and did not want to prescribe in her own name, or has not applied to the DEA for prescribing privileges for, that schedule II class of medication.
   
   Please check out the US DEA site regarding the regulations and the penalties for trafficking in a schedule II drug

It is getting so that it is even difficult for proclaimed satires to sound satirical.

Now on to the report from the blogosphere archived over on Free Republic

---

I sit at my computer, watch my television, listen to my radio and hear the INDISPUTABLE FACTS of this case and shake my head (trying not to pull my hair out) .... even without putting the "puzzle pieces together", refraining from drawing ANY CONCLUSIONS, one cannot ignore the PROSECUTABLE OFFENSES that HAVE OCCURRED in BOTH deaths (and the circumstances leading up to and surrounding those deaths) ... with the SAME PARTIES REPEATING THE SAME PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR AND THE SAME PROSECUTABLE OFFENSES in BOTH of these DEADLY "DEEDS".


Let's look at some of them, shall we? When they are put together, as a list, they are truly unimaginable:

---

List one

1. PROVEN FACT: Khristine Eroshevich prescribed *ALL* of the drugs that were found BOTH *in* Anna Nicole's system (at death and prior - antemortem) AND in the room at the Seminole Hard Rock. FACT - these prescriptions, ALL PRESCRIBED BY EROSHEVICH AND NO OTHER DOCTOR, were ALL INTENDED FOR ANNA NICOLE SMITH, but were WRITTEN TO THREE DIFFERENT PERSONS: Anna Nicole (the fewest number), Alex Katz (WHO is THIS???), and the MAJORITY WERE WRITTEN/RX'D TO HOWARD KEVIN STERN.
   
   
2. PROVEN FACT: Khristine Eroshevich has readily admitted writing and faxing Anna Nicole's (previously treating) Internal/General MEDICAL DOCTOR, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, the now infamous "Laundry List" of multiple drugs in doses and quantities that were so high, BOTH Dr. Kapoor AND the California Pharmacist (Key Pharmacy) REFUSED TO PRESCIBE, DISPENSE OR SEND ANY OF THESE DRUGS.
   
   Additionally, Khristine Eroshevich continued to PUSH to obtain these drugs and not take "NO" for an answer - for after Dr. Kapoor refused her request, she then attempted to GO AROUND Dr. Kapoor and get them directly from Key Pharmacy with the SAME (strange and HIGHLY UNorthodox) Fax, and when Key Pharm. REFUSED her, Key Pharm. (rightly and per professional regs) put Eroshevich in touch with an Addiction Specialist at a local institution - with whom Eroshevich ARGUED and REFUSED to listen or be "put off" from **HER** 'treatment protocol' (all the dangerous drugs with potentially fatal interactions and at dosage levels that WOULD cause severe respiratory depression and REQUIRE CONSTANT MEDICAL OBSERVATION IN A MEDICAL FACILITY, SUCH AS A HOSPITAL - with an IV line started and electronic monitoring of vitals and an MD STAFF PHYSICALLY ON SITE).
   
   The Fax Request, as we have ALL seen, additionally requests these drugs be prescibed to Anna Nicole under a FALSE NAME ('Michelle Chase").
   
   
3. PROVEN FACT: Khristine Eroshevich *EAGERLY* ADMITTED to Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, Key Pharmacy, the Addiction Specialist(s), ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT and their MILLIONS OF VIEWERS that she - Khristine Eroshevich - was PERSONALLY SUPERVISING AND DIRECTING **ALL** OF THE MULTIPLICITY OF POTENT, ADDICTIVE, & FATALLY INTERACTIVE DRUGS for Anna Nicole Smith, but that ADDITIONALLY, Eroshevich was even PERSONALLY ADMINISTERING & INJECTING them to ANS.
   
   
4. PROVEN FACT: Khristine Eroshevich, like most of the others who were "hanging" around Anna Nicole, had LOST HER JOB. She had been FIRED from her last job in California after she was caught FALSIFYING PATIENT RECORDS and REPORTS for the County (or State?- sorry - unsure of which jurisdiction her position was under). Eroshevich was also brought up for DISCIPLINARY ACTION BY THE BOARD OF PSYCHIATRY. HER LICENSE WAS SUSPENDED.

Now, let's take a little break before I lay down any MORE of the PROVEN FACTS that are in the PUBLIC DOMAIN and use just ONE or TWO Brain Cells to make a Deduction that wouldn't be beyond the abilities of the average Preschooler.

Some questions first.

WHY did Khristine Eroshevich FAX Dr. Sandeep Kapoor asking HIM to PRESCRIBE these drugs **IF** Eroshevich was able to prescribe them HERSELF?

Now, that one IS a strange question, because, as we all suspected but now KNOW, **ALL** of the Rx's in Anna Nicole's Hard Rock Hotel Room (Rx'd to ANS, Katz, and HKS) were PRESCRIBED BY EROSHEVICH AND DISPENSED BY SOME??? PHARMACY. (I cannot wait to hear WHAT PHARMACY ... I feel certain it was NOT 'Key Pharmacy', btw.)

To try and answer that question IS confusing, since we do know that Eroshevich's LICENSE WAS SUSPENDED BY THE BOARD OF PSYCHIATRY. When I, personally, first read that "Laundry List" Fax, I *ASSUMED* that Eroshevich took that action BECAUSE she could not prescribe any meds HERSELF ~ as a direct result of her SUSPENSION BY THE BOARD OF PSYCHIATRY.

However, now I have the ask the question, WHY did she do this? Was Eroshevich's MEDICAL LICENSE (for the purposes of prescribing medications or practicing GENERAL MEDICINE) still "VALID" (as opposed to her just being unable to practice the SPECIALTY of Psychiatry) and the situation was that she PLANNING A CRIMINAL ACT (Killing ANS by - to use her words - "knocking her out") and wanted the blame to fall on Dr. Kapoor and not herself?

Or, was she afraid of getting 'caught' with her medical license suspended .... perhaps she thought (or knew) that very FEW pharmacies would even think of stocking, much less dispensing and delivering, drugs of this type and strength (particularly to someone outside of the USA), and because Key Pharmacy was in the same state (CALIFORNIA) in which Eroshevich had been SUSPENDED/DISCIPLINED she was concerned that Key would check/be alerted, so she needed some other doctor in California to prescribe these massive amounts of painkilling and anti-anxiety drugs for her/ANS (and Howard K. Stern --- since he is NOW CLEARLY the "other patient" we've been hearing about ... particularly after the discovery of what was sent to ANS at Horizons by DR. MAURICE LEVY - who not only prescribed the B-12 injections in the name of VICKI MARSHALL, but ALSO the 30 PILLS EA OF DEMEROL & DALMANE to the UN-NAMED "OTHER PATIENT AT THE SAME ADDRESS" whose drugs were in the SAME PACKAGE/AIRBILL as ANS's B-12).

However, it does seem rather unlikely that Eroshevich's ULTIMATE (FINAL) Plan was to Hide her involvement, since she admitted not only to Dr. Kapoor and Key Pharmacy that she was both directing/managing and PERSONALLY administering these drugs to ANS, but also to the dumbfounded amazement of the general public via her nearly giddy 'performance pieces' that approximated some kind of confessional interview on 'Entertainment Tonight'.

Yet, we still have the issue of WHY Eroshevich felt the need to involve Dr. Kapoor in the first place if she could just prescribe them herself. Perhaps we will learn the answers later, as more information becomes available. It could as "simple" as being able to find a pharmacy/location that would accept her "Credentials" (or just not check them).

A related question is: WHY WERE MOST OF THE DRUGS PRESCRIBED TO HOWARD K. STERN?

At first, I thought the answer was 'to avoid the appearance of doctor shopping'.... and/or under the auspices of 'protecting ANS's privacy/celebrity status' .... but after carefully observing the interviews of Anna Nicole and Howard K. Stern post-Daniel's untimely death, **BOTH** of those two people are CLEARLY UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF HEAVILY SEDATING AND MOOD-ALTERING DRUGS. **BOTH** ANS AND HKS had dilated pupils; flat, monotone speech without normal affect; dry mouth and 'sticky' pronunciation of words; delays and/or breaks in their speech pattern (slight aphasia); lapses in attention/concentration; inability to remain focused on person/place/time; long periods of unblinking staring; lack of normal animation of the facial muscles; absence of usual/normal hand gestures previously known to be observed/associated with the subject - ANS & HKS, in this case - in the past.

So, without theorizing any further, we have all seen the following CRIMINAL/NEGLIGENT ACTS so far - MADE GLARINGLY APPARENT BY THE KNOWN FACTS OF THIS CASE:

1. Khristine Eroshevich tried to obtain drugs from both Dr. Kapoor AND Key Pharmacy for a patient under a False Name. (The 'Laundry List'). THIS IS ILLEGAL
   
   
2. Khristine Eroshevich took FULL RESPONSIBILITY for ANNA NICOLE'S ****FATAL "TREATMENT PROTOCOL' OF DRUGS****, not only PERSONALLY DEVISING AND DIRECTING THOSE DRUGS, IN THOSE DANGEROUSLY HIGH DOSAGES, IN THOSE KNOWN-TO-BE-FATAL COMBINATIONS, but also PERSONALLY ADMINISTERING THOSE DANGEROUS AND KNOWN-TO-BE-FATAL (and they WERE!) DRUGS TO ANS. THIS IS CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE (at the Minimum)
   
   
3. Khristine Eroshevich PRESCRIBED DRUGS TO HOWARD K. STERN THAT WERE INTENDED FOR USE BY ANNA NICOLE. (THIS IS ILLEGAL)
   
   
4. Khristine Eroshevich MIGHT TRY to feign innocence regarding #3 (above), however, her own vigorous assertions of her CLOSE AND DIRECTLY PERSONAL MONITORING/ADMINISTRATION OF DRUGS for ANS **BELIES** ANY CLAIM OF INNOCENCE AND/OR IGNORANCE THAT ANS WAS TAKING THE DRUGS THAT EROSHEVICH RX'D TO HK STERN.
   
   Now, these are just the MINIMUM Charges that are OBVIOUS TO A PRESCHOOLER and cannot, should not, be ignored by anyone (especially by my own home state of Florida). Following these, there are many, many more possible charges that scream out to all of us ... and with just a LITTLE overturning of the underside of some rocks, enough information would be gleaned to file even MORE charges. Such as.....
   
   
5. Khristine Eroshevich most probably prescribed drugs to Anna Nicole, Howard K. Stern and this Alex Katz (alias or friend ... only the light of day will tell) while ON SUSPENSION. Therefore, EROSHEVICH'S MEDICAL LICENSE AND PRESCRIBING PRIVILIGES - PARTICULARLY FOR SCHEDULED DRUGS (NARCOTICS AND BENZO'S) - WERE NOT VALID, MAKING THOSE PRESCRIPTIONS INVALID AND ILLEGAL. (This is absolutely ILLEGAL)
   
   
6. Khristine Eroshevich, unlike Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Dr. Maurice Levy, was UNEQUIVOCALLY AND ABSOLUTELY AWARE THAT ANNA NICOLE WAS BOTH OBTAINING AND CONSUMING DRUGS FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES/DOCTORS. Therefore, Eroshevich not only ENABLED DOCTOR SHOPPING, but was PRIVY TO IT AND (particularly in light of the "Laundry List" Fax) FACILITATED IT! (THIS IS ILLEGAL.... and most likely a FIRST in the entire medical profession!)
   
   
7. Khristine Eroshevich personally injected ANS (along with HK Stern's testimony in Florida that he also personally injected her ... but that is for a bit later in this blog) multiple times; even ordering injectibles on the 'Laundry List' fax and "assuring" Dr. Kapoor and Key Pharmacy that she personally would be INJECTING ANNA NICOLE.
   
   As a result of Eroshevich's shoddy technique and poor medical training, ANS developed NUMEROUS CYSTS FILLED WITH AGGRESSIVELY INFECTIOUS BACTERIA ON THE ANTERIOR OF HER RIGHT THIGH, POSTERIOR OF HER LEFT BUTTOCK AND POSTERIOR OF HER RIGHT BUTTOCK; including CALCIFIED CYSTS AND ABCESSES. Puncturing one of these led to the aggressive infection that invaded ANS's bloodstream on the way to Florida, 3 days prior to her death, and greatly contributed to her untimely demise. Eroshevich most likely was the one who performed this injection - but that is for a REAL INVESTIGATION TO DISCOVER.
   
   However, we are ASSURED BY EROSHEVICH'S OWN ADMISSION THAT SHE WAS THE ONE PERSONALLY ACCOMPANYING ANS TO FLORIDA AND WAS TREATING ANS AND DESIGNED & PRESCRIBED THE TREATMENT PROTOCOL FOR THIS INFECTION (the Cipro and Tamiflu - by prescription ... and most likely the Benadryl and Tylenol). Not only ALLOWING a Patient to develop such numerous and serious cysts and abscesses from injections, (not to mention PERFORATING ONE), and most egregiously IGNORING ANS'S PROTESTS OF PAIN IN/FROM HER LEFT POSTERIOR BUTTOCK AND TREATING THESE PARTICULAR SYMPTOMS AS THE "FLU" (focal pain at/from an injection site, precipitated by an injection which Eroshevich either performed, directed, or supervised, then subsequent fever - temp 105!!!!, chills, vomiting/emesis, loose bowels) is MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE at the very least.
   
   IMHO, it is CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE, since it lead to a homicide ... er - I mean, ... "Untimely Death". (THIS IS MEDICAL MALPRACTICE - NEGLIGENCE/CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE)
   
   
8. Finally, what every woman on the FACE OF THE EARTH WHO HAS EVER RAISED A CHILD (or probably BABYSAT) knows to be true: THAT A PERSON WITH A FEVER OF 105 DEGREES NEEDS TO BE IN THE HOSPITAL THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY! Khristine Eroshevich not only DIRECTED AND SUPERVISED THE "ICE BATH" (per her 'Entertainment Tonight' puff pieces), which every mother, grandmother, babysitter, and pretty much average Nincompoop (is that how to spell it? well, I will make it up as I go along, like HKS and Eroshevich are doing) KNOWS IS THE OPPOSITE OF GOOD/PROPER MEDICAL CARE, but Eroshevich FAILED TO TAKE, DIRECT, ORDER, OR INSIST THAT ANS SEEK TREATMENT AT A PROPER MEDICAL FACILITY (HOSPITAL).
   
   NOT ONLY FAILED TO TAKE PROPER ACTION, BUT EROSHEVICH **CONDONED** SELF-TREATMENT BY PRESCRIBING THE TAMIFLU AND CIPRO (easily proven/shown by simply presenting these prescriptions by Eroshevich on that day at the Seminole Hard Rock as evidence of Eroshevich designing, directing, and personally implementing a treatment protocol for ANS that was to be undertaken OUTSIDE of a medical facility, in that hotel room; effectively ALLOWING ANS TO SELF-MEDICATE).

****If Eroshevich had not prescribed the Cipro, Tamiflu (and certainly the other drugs!) for ANS, it seems fairly obvious to me and the rest of the world with IQ's over 40 that Anna Nicole would still be ALIVE today.

**** Most certainly, ANS would have had to seek some kind of medical treatment -- her fever, vomiting, and other seriously discomforting symptoms would have DRIVEN her to the doctor, or Emergency Room ... and she would have gotten the PROPER care and treatment protocol. Not Dr. Death and her "How to Die in 3 Days or Less on Your Own" plan of (non) action.

Hear this PLEASE CHIEF CHARLIE TIGER and the MEDICAL BOARDS OF THE STATES OF FLORIDA AND CALIFORNIA: KHRISTINE EROSHEVICH COMMITTED AT THE VERY LEAST MEDICAL MALPRACTICE IN THE FORM OF NEGLIGENCE IN THIS MATTER, AND BECAUSE IT DIRECTLY AND KNOWINGLY LED TO THE DEATH OF A PERSON, ANNA NICOLE SMITH, IT SHOULD BE MEDICAL MALPRACTICE WITH **CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE** and Eroshevich's license to practice medicine OF ANY KIND should be PERMANENTLY REVOKED.

Any medical board reviewing this same set of facts would quickly and easily find the doctor guilty of malpractice ... and because a death resulted, criminal charges should immediately follow. It is STRANGE to me that we have had several pharmacists here (a high profile case was in Gainesville after the death of UF student who PURPOSELY and KNOWINGLY took Oxycontin to get high, after illegally obtaining it, and died - and it was the PHARMACIST who was charged and CONVICTED!!) not only lose their licenses permanently, but they LANDED IN JAIL ALMOST IMMEDIATELY AFTER a person died from PURPOSELY ABUSING/MISUSING a drug -- and in each situation the illegal and fatal act was UNKNOWN TO THE PHARMACIST.

If these poor professionals can go to jail for the overdose deaths of these kids, then most CERTAINLY, if cases are to be compared (and they are in the same state), Eroshevich PROVES herself GUILTY without a shadow of a doubt and ought to be held liable (and with 1000x greater the surety, when comparing 'apples to apples' in these cases). (THIS IS CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE TO CREATE AND SUPPORT A SITUATION WHICH DIRECTLY LED TO THE DEATH OF A PERSON ... PARTICULARLY WHEN THE OFFENDER WAS ACTING IN A PROFESSIONAL CAPACITY, SUCH AS A DOCTOR, NURSE, EMT, ETC.)

(The last statement above does lead our thoughts to Bodyguard/Friend/Sexual Companion? Maurice "Mo" Brighthaupt and his wife - Registered Nurse/Friend/'Spurned Other Woman'?? Tasma "Taz" Brighthaupt, but I don't want to jump too far ahead. There is so much information and it is my opinion that those involved are taking advantage of this cornucopia of facts to hide themselves amongst the buffet ..... and my intention here is to dissect and fix the facts upon separate slides of truth for us to observe under the microscope ... and hopefully attract the attention of those who can take appropriate action.)

I am going to take a break here and come back after a bit of a rest. Please let me know if I've left anything out.... but I *am* taking this bit-by-bit, and next I will focus on Maurice and Tasma, leaving HK Stern for last as it is impossible to separate this from the baby/DNA issue, which - to me - is the LYNCHPIN in this whole sordid mess.

Until then, make some bets on which plastic surgeon is working on Khris Eroshevich right now ... making her look like "Anna Nicole 10 years ago, please".

Follow up Comment

But what really bothers me the most is that both Dr. Perper and Dr. Wecht both stated that the medication in Anna’s body was below the lethal dosage!! That raises my suspicion because if there was any planning going on you would think that if there is a crime involved here that its exactly what they would do – keep the dosage below the radar screen!! Dr. Perper repeatedly said that if there was a crime there would have been higher dosages evident in her body!!! Duh!!! That is clearly obvious so – what is going on here is this a murder of the making or assisted suicide??? Could anyone be that sick to do this to someone over money?? There are two deaths

Canadian Military unhappy about doctor's suspension

From CBC News

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick has suspended the licence of a psychiatrist, against the wishes of his military employers at CFB Gagetown.

The decision to suspend James Hanley's licence to practise followed a ruling made by the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Newfoundland and Labrador three weeks ago.

Hanley practised in St. John's for more than two decades, but the college there revoked his licence in March after he admitted to having sex with a female patient.

The psychiatrist has been working for the military at CFB Gagetown, but the provincial college suspended his licence pending an investigation outcome that could take months, officials said.

Cmdr. David Wilcox, who is the military's most senior physician for Atlantic Canada, said Hanley's contract with military specified that he be a licensed doctor.

"Without a licence, then, the contract is null and void," said Wilcox, adding it will be a difficult time for Hanley's patients at CFB Gagetown.

"Some of them are going to be devastated," he said. "It's going to be very difficult for them. Critical to a good doctor-patient relationship is that trust and establishing a rapport, and it's going to be very difficult to parachute in another health care provider and continue on with the therapies."

The military has asked the New Brunswick college not to revoke Hanley's licence. It said CFB Gagetown needs Hanley because of a severe shortage of psychiatrists and because demand for their services is expected to increase as more soldiers return from Afghanistan.