Zoloft Caused Mania in Youth

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Psychiatrist: Zoloft Caused Mania in Youth

By BRUCE SMITH, Associated Press Writer

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Twelve-year-old Pittman heard voices in his head

from mania induced by Zoloft when he shot and killed his grandparents, a

forensic psychiatrist testified at the youth's double murder trial.

" said he had thoughts in his head telling him to kill his

grandparents, " said Dr. Lanette Atkins, who works for the state Department of

Mental Health. " He said he shot them and heard echoes in his head saying " Kill.

Kill. Do It. Do It. "

Pittman was acting strangely and was fidgeting, talking fast and jumping around

when he was on the anti-depressant for a time before the slayings, relatives

testified Monday as the trial entered a second week.

Pittman is charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of Joe Pittman, 66,

and his wife Joy Pittman, 62, in their Chester County home in November, 2001.

Pittman, now 15, has acknowledged he killed them, burned their house

and then drove off in their car. But the defense maintains no murders were

committed because the youth's mind was clouded by the effects of the Zoloft.

He didn't know right from wrong at the time, said Atkins, who is also a child

psychiatrist and evaluates competency and criminal responsibility in many cases

of juveniles charged with crimes in the state.

" He described everything to me as being in a television show - being part of a

television show and not being able to stop it, " Atkins said.

" He was completely different from anything I had seen in my entire life "

Pittman's sister le Pittman Finchum testified. She said she saw Pittman

the week before the slayings.

" He was constantly up and down, inside and outside the house. He was crazy, " she

said.

Pittman's aunt, Melinda Pittman Rector, said she spoke to her nephew twice by

phone in the days before the shootings.

" He said it was like his skin was crawling and he was burning beneath. He said

it was like I'm burning under my skin and can't put it out, " Rector, the

daughter of the victims, testified.

In Florida, the boy was prescribed the anti-depressant Paxil and a doctor in

Chester put him on Zoloft after he came to stay with his grandparents in early

November.

Atkins said doctors misdiagnosed Pittman.

" In this case, I see no evidence of depression to treat, " she said, adding there

is also a question of how much Zoloft Pittman was taking at the time.

Pittman's doctor has testified he prescribed a 50 milligram dose each day. But

Atkins said Pittman told her he was taking as many as four pills a day - perhaps

as much as 200 milligrams.

But had the youth been taking the lower prescribed dose " my opinion still would

not change. You can have the reaction with a 50 milligram dose, " she testified.

She said his mania is reflected in a statement to police that his grandparents

were shot by a black man who then kidnapped him. She noted Pittman drove to

neighboring Cherokee County where the car he took got stuck " He had no real

plan. He had no where to go. He had just killed the people he loved the most, "

she testified.

The prosecution contends Pittman knew what he was doing and shot his

grandparents because they disciplined him for choking a younger student on a

school bus shortly before the killings.

Rector testified that when she spoke to her nephew, he said the Zoloft was

making him sleepy. But, she said, the youth told her " 'I don't want to sleep

because when I sleep I have nightmares.' "

Pittman was hospitalized in Florida, where his father lives, after he threatened

to kill himself about a month before the slayings. He also ran away from home

there.

Last October, the FDA (news - web sites) ordered Zoloft and other

antidepressants to carry " black box " warnings - the government's strongest

warning short of a ban - about increasing the risk of suicidal behavior in

children.