[SSRI-Research] READ - The standard dose for Prozac is 20mgs NOT 210mg!

[Guest guest]

> JustSayNO

> Tue, 06 Jul 2004 02:31:09 -0000

> [sSRI-Research] READ - The standard dose

> for Prozac is 20mgs NOT 210mg!

>

> -- this man was hallucinating... and psychotic...

> from the drugs...

>

> From the Boston Globe: " Joseph said McDermott told

> him that he had

> increased his dosage of Prozac by Dec. 1, first from

> 70 milligrams

> per day to 140 milligrams, and then to 210

> milligrams. Joseph said

> McDermott increased the dosage without his doctor's

> permission or

> advice.

>

> Although Prozac is an antidepressant, potential side

> effects include

> restlessness, agitation, psychosis, rage, anger and

> violence, Joseph

> said.

>

> " I would offer the opinion that it's very possible

> that Prozac is the

> final piece of the puzzle that explains the level of

> rage and anger

> that allowed the killings to occur, " said Joseph, an

> attending

> psychiatrist at McLean Hospital and an associate

> clinical professor

> of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School " .

>

>

http://www.boston.com/news/daily/18/office_shootings.htm

>

> Prosecutors try to shake psychiatrist's testimony

> about office gunman

>

> By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press, 04/18/02

> Michael McDermott

> (Globe Staff / John Blanding)

>

> CAMBRIDGE -- Prosecutors on Thursday tried to shake

> the testimony of

> a

> psychiatrist who said a man who killed seven

> co-workers was mentally

> ill

> and unable to understand right from wrong when he

> went on a shooting

> rampage.

>

> Dr. Anthony Joseph, testifying for the defense, did

> not waver from

> his

> earlier testimony, repeating his claim that Michael

> McDermott

> suffered

> from paranoid schizophrenia and other mental

> disorders when he gunned

> down

> his colleagues at Edgewater Technology on Dec. 26,

> 2000.

>

> " I do not believe Mr. McDermott was malingering, "

> Joseph said.

>

> Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley focused

> on Joseph's

> multipart

> diagnosis, in which he says McDermott was not only

> schizophrenic, but

> suffered from depression and paranoia, as well as

> several other

> disorders.

>

> Those include: seasonal affective disorder, better

> known as winter

> depression; cotard syndrome, a disorder that makes

> people believe

> they're

> dead; and delusional misidentification syndrome,

> which makes people

> mistake the identities of people, places and things.

>

> During two days on the witness stand last week,

> McDermott, a 43-year-

> old

> software engineer, said he believes he killed Nazis

> -- not his co-

> workers.

>

> He said St. Michael the Archangel appeared to him 12

> days before the

> killings and told him he could prevent the Holocaust

> and earn a soul

> if he

> traveled back in time to 1940 and killed Adolf

> Hitler and six German

> generals.

>

> Under questioning from Coakley, Joseph acknowledged

> that he did not

> corroborate everything McDermott told him about his

> medical and

> psychological history. He also admitted he reached

> the conclusion

> that

> McDermott was not faking his mental disorders before

> he learned that

> McDermott had purchased a clinical textbook on

> malingering and

> searched

> the Internet for materials on " how to fake mental

> illness. "

>

> But Joseph said he still believes McDermott is not

> faking.

>

> Prosecutors contend that McDermott killed his

> co-workers after

> becoming

> enraged about the company's decision to comply with

> an IRS order to

> withhold some of his wages to pay back taxes he

> owed.

>

> On Wednesday, Joseph testified that McDermott had

> tripled his dosage

> of Prozac before the shootings, a move that may have

> heightened his

> rage and sparked the shooting spree.

>

> Joseph said McDermott told him that he had increased

> his dosage of

> Prozac by Dec. 1, first from 70 milligrams per day

> to 140 milligrams,

> and then to 210 milligrams. Joseph said McDermott

> increased the

> dosage without his doctor's permission or advice.

>

> Although Prozac is an antidepressant, potential side

> effects include

> restlessness, agitation, psychosis, rage, anger and

> violence, Joseph

> said.

>

> " I would offer the opinion that it's very possible

> that Prozac is the

> final piece of the puzzle that explains the level of

> rage and anger

> that allowed the killings to occur, " said Joseph, an

> attending

> psychiatrist at McLean Hospital and an associate

> clinical professor

> of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

>

> He acknowledged, however, that he could not say to

> " a reasonable

> degree of medical certainty " what effect the

> increased dosage had on

> McDermott.

>

> Prosecutors planned to call medical experts of their

> own as rebuttal

> witnesses to support their theory that McDermott

> concocted an

> elaborate tale to make himself look insane to the

> jury.

>

>