Anti-Depressants Cited In Suicide

Free Market News
Nov. 30, 2005

The negative side effects of the anti-depressant prescription medications known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have been long suspected, and may have contributed to several schoolyard shootings including the Columbine massacre. Now, if a pending court case goes forward, there may even be a link proven to suicide.

A story in Fortune magazine details the case of Tim "Woody" Witczak, whose wife Kimberly is claiming her husband's suicide two years ago was directly caused by the SSRI Zoloft. As the story outlines it, Mr. Witczak had very little reason to take his own life: "Shortly before his death he had been named vice president of sales at a startup that sold energy-efficient lighting." But when "anxiety about the new job" caused insomnia, he was prescribed Zoloft. After a couple of weeks on the medication, he reportedly began suffering from "nightmares, profound agitation, and eerie sensory experiences." According to his wife, at one point he said he felt as if his head were detached from his body, only to calm down shortly thereafter. But within another couple of weeks – about five weeks after his first dose – he hanged himself from the rafters in their garage when Kim was out of town, leaving no suicide note.

Kim is suing Pfizer, maker of the drug, alleging that Zoloft induced the suicide and that the company failed to warn about the drug's potential to cause perilous side effects. Pfizer is of course denying any responsibility for the death, or any connection between it and their medications. The FDA slapped a so-called "black-boz warning" on all SSRIs last year, in the face of repeated stories about children with adverse reactions. As far as Colombine goes, there are additional reports that go well beyond the hypothesis that drugs are responsible for the entire affair. Questions have been raised, but never conclusively answered, about a variety of outside involvement. And these questions linger, much as questions about 9/11 linger.