Was Prozac the missing puzzle piece

[Guest guest]

Dear Ramo,

Thanks. I'll forward this on to the groups. I find it very interesting that the psychiatrist working for the defense actually admits that Prozac could have caused psychosis, and openly refers to it as possibly the missing puzzle piece.

It would appeat that more medical professionals are beginning to wake up to this sad reality.

ML,

The Avenging Angel

>israelswarrior@..., nirenbergl@... >Subject: Second specialist testifies McDermott was delusional >Date: Thu, 2 May 2002 08:58:46 EDT > >Thought this may be of interest. Ramo > > >http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/108/metro/Second_specialist_testifies_McDerm > >ott_was_delusionalP.shtml > >Second specialist testifies McDermott was delusional Asserts defendant >suffers from several mental illnessesBy Michele Kurtz, Globe Correspondent, >4/18/2002 CAMBRIDGE - McDermott was so delusional when he fatally >shot seven Wakefield co-workers that he still doesn't understand that what he >did was wrong and continues to think his shooting rampage saved the world >from the Holocaust and secured his own salvation, a psychiatrist testified >yesterday. Dr. ph, who met with McDermott five times and examined >his medical history, said the Haverhill man is not faking mental illness as >prosecutors contend. ph, testifying for the defense, told jurors in >Middlesex Superior Court that McDermott has paranoid schizophrenia and >several other debilitating mental illnesses, including Cotard's Syndrome, an >obscure condition in which people believe they are dead. He is the second >specialist to tell jurors that McDermott, 43, suffers from schizophrenia and >is not criminally responsible for killing seven colleagues at Edgewater >Technology the day after Christmas in 2000. ph said that since he first >saw McDermott in January 2001 - about a month after the killings - he >repeatedly tested the theory that McDermott was mentally ill, even trying to >find evidence that he was faking. ''There's very little strong evidence that >Mr. McDermott was [faking],'' said ph, an attending psychiatrist at >McLean Hospital. ''Mr. McDermott, in many ways, is doing the opposite.'' The >elaborate nature of McDermott's tale makes it suspect, ph testified. >McDermott said that St. the Archangel appeared before him and told >him he could earn a soul if he traveled through a time portal and killed >Adolf Hitler and six Nazi generals. He told jurors that that's what he did >and that he died in a Berlin police station. People who successfully fake >schizophrenia keep their stories simple, ph said, and don't assert >several bizarre and rare symptoms, such as believing that they're dead and >that other people don't exist. But McDermott, who testified that he has >researched mental illness extensively over the years, did the opposite, >ph said. ''He's a very intelligent man,'' ph said. ''If he's using >the information to malinger, you would expect him to do a much better job.'' >Prosecutors are scheduled to cross-examine ph this morning. They allege >that McDermott killed his coworkers in a rage because the company planned to >seize part of his wages to pay back taxes that the Internal Revenue Service >said he owed. ph suggested that McDermott's delusions began early in life >when he formed the belief that he was born without a soul. Prior to the >killings, no doctors had diagnosed him with schizophrenia in part because >McDermott so distrusted psychiatrists that he didn't reveal his true >symptoms, ph said. Asked why McDermott is so cooperative now, ph >said. ''He believes he's in a different state, so there's no point in >pretending these things don't exist anymore.'' ph also said that >McDermott had increased the amount of Prozac he was taking shortly before the >killings, from 70 milligrams a day to 210 milligrams. In some people, drugs >such as Prozac can cause side effects that include agitation, psychosis, rage >and violence, he said. ''It's possible that Prozac is the final piece of the >puzzle that explains the level of rage and anger that allowed the killings to >occur,'' he said. Jurors also heard yesterday from a psychologist who >administered a personality test of more than 500 questions to McDermott in >November 2001. He testified that he doesn't believe McDermott faked mental >illness when he took the test. The results of the Minnesota Multiphasic >Personality Inventory - a test McDermott testified he had studied over the >years - showed that McDermott is an ''inflexible, rigid, moralistic man'' who >is antisocial and chronically angry, said Dr. Kalinowski, a >psychologist who has written about schizophrenia and obsessive compulsive >disorder. ''He's the kind of person who would walk along with his anger >pretty much in control and then explode,'' Kalinowski testified. ''People who >have the results that he had are very angry, violent - and in his case, >psychotic.'' Kalinowski, who testified for the defense, did not offer a >diagnosis for McDermott, because he said he only administered the exam to him >and did not conduct any other evaluations. McDermott took an earlier version >of the test three times in the 1980s for his work at a Maine nuclear power >plant, and Kalinowski compared the results from the first test McDermott took >in 1982 to the one he took in November. McDermott's score in areas >characteristic of schizophrenia jumped dramatically between 1982 and 2001, >although his marks were high in 1982, too, Kalinowski said. His marks also >soared in an area designed to show if someone is faking mental illness. ''It >means that either he's malingering ... or he got sick,'' said Kalinowski, who >testified that he doesn't believe McDermott is pretending to be sick. In >fact, he said, McDermott's scores also show that he was defensive when taking >the test and hesitant to divulge the extent of his problems. This story ran >on page B7 of the Boston Globe on 4/18/2002. >© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company. > > > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com.